Legacy of Shepard - The Engineer
by Nightstride
Summary: This is the novelization of my play-through of the Mass Effect trilogy with my own extra touches. My first submission in fact, and is the first in a planned sequence of novels concerning the major romances. This story involves the thoughts behind the people and their growth through the trilogy...eventually leading to a romance between Tali and Shepard...My notes explain more.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginnings of a Legend

**The Legacy of Shepard – The Engineer**

**Author's note: I have been reading a stories on this site for a while now, and while many of them are good, I find that a lot of them tend to deviate from the storyline a little too much for my tastes (when referencing key points in the game) or they over-sexualize some of the characters (even when rated T), while there is nothing wrong with that, if that's what you're looking for, I wanted to get a story out mostly to calm my own thoughts and allow someone the means to know Shepard's story without having to play the game (eg: people who read, and liked, the official published books, don't have the time/means/wish to play the game to fill in the holes that the books left). If all goes well, I intend to post one chapter every two weeks so I can try to build up a stockpile and get some feedback and modify things to my readers' liking. If things go better than intended, I will switch to every week, but if things go bad, probably every month…I will try to keep up on this, but I'm going for an Engineering degree (with finals coming up)... I recorded my play through using FRAPS and typed it out based on that; I don't recommend doing that though…it takes a lot of space.**

**I intend to capture the crew's perspectives on Commander Shepard's choices and the missions (including the Commander's). I will try to make it as accurate to the Mass Effect lore as I can get it (immersion?). I will also try to do the majority of the side missions (in ME1). For the record, I have also read all the comics and all but one of the books (Don't judge me lol). This will not be solely based on the missions, though, but I will likely not add any side missions of my own making either during the gameplay; I will also add some banter between characters during the missions and clean up some of the flow of the original speech that sounds too mechanical (I hope that term explains enough. If I take any ideas from other sources, I will give them credit at the end of the chapter (eg. fan comics, fluff pieces, memes, etc.). My final intention is to have a story for all of the long-lasting romances in the game (ones that can be in your squad in at least two games…sorry to people who are fans of the romances other than Tali, Garrus, Kaidan, Ash, and Liara). I will most likely be writing the stories in that order, and one at a time…through all three games…and DLCs…then once I get a template (at least from the first game), I will tweak the information to fit with the rest of the characters to save time on the writing (though I will still do a playthrough for each…and no, the order does not signify which characters I prefer over others…other than the first two). I will also set the cover of the stories to what ****_that_**** Shepard looks like in ****_that_**** playthrough. I apologize if I offended anyone with anything above…I may be slightly socially awkward. **

**If you read all of that above, Congratulations…and thank you for not turning away. If you didn't read it, at least read the following…it sums up my plans for the series' and potential legal issues.**

**_All characters and plots are property of Bioware and their respective affiliates. I only have control over the direction the story takes and the fluff in-between. I am by no means trying to profit from this story in any way or infringe on their copyrights. My only wish is to improve the great story of the Mass Effect Trilogy with my own touches (eg: the minds behind the people). If someone from Bioware (or EA) wishes for me to take this down, I will do so (that also applies to a admins). If all else fails, this can be considered a walkthrough of the game._**

**I hope that covers all my bases…If I missed anything, please mention it via review or PM.**

**I am going to format these like they are written by one of the offspring of Shepard and their romance (and no…that does not imply which ending they will take at the end of ME3…I'll explain later…much later…just bear with me…there may or may not be multiple endings for certain characters as well…still debating…and yes, there will be aftermath chapters when I get to them). Oh, and one more thing…I'm not big on swearing soo the words will still be there, but some will contain "*". I am trying to make this as canon as possible (I hope that was the right term).**

**Anything in bold is ****_my_**** notes, and almost everything ****_italicized _****is thoughts…**

**Okay, now for the grind**

**Some opening specs that are relevant at this time:**

**Name: Michael Shepard (probably won't use first name much)**

**Class: Engineer**

**Imported Save ME1 (Not starting this one at base stats)**

**Veteran Difficulty (just so I have a lower chance of dying and having to explain it)**

* * *

The Legacy of Shepard

Book 1

By: Ana'Shepard nar Rannoch

Chapter 1: The Beginnings of a Legend

Author's Note: I am the eldest child of Commander Shepard vas Normandy and Tali'Shepard vas Normandy nar Rayya (previously known as Tali'Zorah). For my pilgrimage I am compiling the history of my father leading up to and during the Reaper War. Over the past year, I have been interviewing his crew and friends from the old Normandy and Normandy SR2 and reviewing his mission reports and personal logs (Hackett allowed only me access on the premise that I only give out information that he approves). With help from my mother, the vast information network of Dr. Liara T'Soni, and the occasional bouts with his other squad members, I have recorded my father's legacy into a story from their varying perspectives as well as his.

* * *

This was the first actual mission Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko had ever done with the Great Commander Shepard. The Commander had given them a brief rundown of the mission parameters before they were released by Captain Anderson. A Prothean beacon, the implications were immense…

_Immense enough for a Council Spectre to be involved…a Turian none the less…on a Human planet…_, he thought, _Well, I guess this _does_ have potential to affect all the galactic races._

The Normandypulling away jarred him out of his thoughts; he glanced around the perimeter, "Ship perimeter clear, Commander."

Shepard nodded and pulled out his pistol, "Let's move out."

"This place got hit hard, Commander," it was Nihlus speaking, the aforementioned Turian Spectre, over the squad's suit-to-suit comms, "hostiles everywhere…Keep your guard up."

_Still clear _here, Kaidan thought as they spread out over the clearing. There were strange organisms floating all over the area that Kaidan didn't recognize, "What the hell are those?"

"Gas bags…Don't worry—they're harmless," Corporal Jenkins, the other member of their squad, responded.

Kaidan reminded himself that Jenkins grew up on this planet, Eden Prime it was called, humanity's first attempt to establish a colony outside their solar-system. He had the strong urge to shoot one of the floating creatures just to see what they did, but he pushed the urge down and continued to follow the commander.

They walked over a small hill and saw something that froze the blood in everyone's veins…burnt bodies…a bad way to go.

Jenkins sounded a little green, "Oh, God. What happened here?"

Neither the Commander nor Kaidan answered, they knew from experience that this was only going to get worse.

OOO

"Oh, God. What happened here?"

_Some things are better left unanswered_, Shepard thought to himself.

He continued moving forward and dropped down on one knee, _Something's not right here_, he signaled the squad to stop. This would be a good place for an ambush. He motioned the squad to continue moving forward; Jenkins leapt to comply while Shepard scanned the edges of the clearing. He had a bad feeling.

Jenkins walked cautiously into the clearing, and when he was in the worst possible position, two floating mechanical drones popped around the far corner of the clearing and gunned him down.

_Crap!_ Shepard switched to his sniper rifle and took aim at one of the bots and fired. It exploded, but he lost his shields in the process, a sniper rifle was not a good choice in this instance. He pulled out his omni-tool and attempted to sabotage the next bot's weapons, it worked but it looked like another drone appeared. He switched to his pistol and opened fire on the drones once again. It took a little longer than he would have liked, but eventually both of them were destroyed. Kaidan ran up to the body of Jenkins while Shepard kept his pistol ready if any more drones appeared.

The Lieutenant kneeled down and closed Jenkins' eyes. As he stood up he gave the Commander his assessment, "Ripped right through his shields. Never had a chance…"

_Damn_, Shepard thought.

"We'll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete." Shepard pointed at Kaidan, "But I need you to stay focused."

Kaidan gave a sharp nod, "Aye, Aye, sir," and fell into place behind him again.

They both rounded the corner that the machines came out from. After a little more walking, they took out two more assault drones and one rocket drone.

_Why do these things look familiar? _Shepard thought back to the time while he was studying the mechanics of different types of machines for becoming a combat engineer, and one name came to his mind…_Geth. _Created by the Quarians as a source of cheap labor long before he was born; they eventually gained a collective intelligence and rebelled. But they haven't been seen outside the Perseus Veil in centuries.

Nihlus coming back onto the comm pulled him out of his thoughts, "I've got some burned out buildings here, Shepard…A lot of bodies. I'm going to check it out. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site.

Shepard didn't answer, Nihlus could handle himself, not to mention, he just spotted two more assault drones and another rocket drone which he and Kaidan took down in rapid succession. Seeing another clearing ahead and trusting Kaidan could get anything that was small and flying, Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle once again.

OOO

She had been running for a while now and had the five drones that had been chasing her whittled down to two, her pistol was overheated. She heard shooting in the distance, and that gave her hope that there were survivors. She changed her course and started booking it in their direction. They sounded like they may have been on the other side of the clearing. She simultaneously felt an impact get absorbed by her shields and heard her pistol overheat alarm stop beeping. She pulled it out, slid onto her back, and took out the remaining two drones.

As they fell, her eye was immediately drawn to a humanoid geth machine holding a colonist over a strange tripod. A half a second later a huge spike rose out of the tripod and impaled the colonist and thrust him high into the air. She had a half a hope that that was not the source of gunfire she had heard earlier. Her senses screamed at her to get running, and she quickly complied.

Just as the geth and its partner turned their single flashlight heads in her direction, she made it to cover behind a conveniently placed rock and pulled out her assault rifle. She peeked around the corner and saw the leftmost geth explode.

Her hopes rose again and she had the fleeting thought, _explosive rounds…nice; _a few seconds later, she watched the other one explode and let out a breath she had been holding. She then turned to face her rescuers.

She heard rumors that the Alliance was sending people in, but she didn't expect to see someone like Commander Shepard, "Thank you for your help, Commander. I didn't think I was going to make it."

Commander Shepard reattached his sniper rifle to the electromagnetic strips on his back and pulled out his assault rifle.

She was out of breath and forgot to salute, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?" somewhere in her mind she knew it was a dumb question, but one could never be sure.

"Are you wounded, Williams?"

_I guess that answers that,_ "A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious" She thought back to the people that were under her command, "The others weren't so lucky."

She walked to the side and pointed in the direction she came from, "Oh, man…We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit," She looked back at the Commander, "we tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications," she took a breath, "I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"Where's the rest of your squad?"

She thought back, "We tried to double back to the beacon. But we walked into an ambush," she looked down and shook her head, "I don't think any of the others…" she looked at the Commander again, "I think I'm the only one left."

He returned her gaze with a steady trustworthy look, "This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them."

With that statement, she felt a little better about herself, "Yes, sir. We held our position as long as we could…Until the geth overwhelmed us."

The soldier behind the commander spoke up, "The Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly 200 years. Why are they here now?"

Ashley shrugged, "They must have come for the beacon. The dig site is close," she pointed in its general direction, "just over the rise. It might still be there."

Shepard nodded, "We could use your help, Williams."

She returned his nod, "Aye, aye, sir. It's time for payback."

He asked her a few more questions concerning the Geth, the beacon, the events leading up to the attack, and whether or not she had seen Nihlus; to that last question, she couldn't help but feel a slight pang of anger about a Turian being on a human planet, but she pushed the feeling aside and didn't dwell on it.

After his question session was up, he gave a slight nod and said, "Lets move out."

OOO

_Sounds like she has some talent for gunfights, _Shepard thought as he was digging through some crates in that area, _I'll have to get the _Alliance_ to send me her file...Hey!_ Shepard pulled an explosive round mod out of one of the crates and scanned it with his omni-tool, _Oh…mark IX…omni-gel. _He then pulled an incendiary grenade X mod, thought for a moment, then converted it too to omni-gel.

Shepard moved on to another crate, and finding nothing of value, moved on.

"The beacon's at the far end of this trench," Ashley commented.

Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle and responded, "Got it."

The squad continued down the trench until they came to the dig site…which happened to contain a few geth that were easily and precisely taken out from a distance.

Kaidan took a quick look around and reported, "Negative contacts Commander."

From the way he said it, Shepard could tell something was on his mind, "What's up Lieutenant?"

"That man was still alive when they stuck him on the spike."

Ashley responded by saying, "Killing us isn't enough. The geth want us to suffer."

"Would geth care about something like that?" Shepard asked.

"Impaling victims instead of just shooting them…there must be _some_ reason behind it."

"Classic psychological warfare, I guess, they are using terror as a weapon," Kaidan responded.

_My statement still stands, _Shepard thought, _deep thinker, though, that one_.

He decided not to pursue the conversation in favor of investigating the dig site; in which case something was immediately apparent…there was no beacon.

"This is the dig site." Ashley stated, "The beacon was right here. It must have been moved."

Kaidan looked at her, "By who? Our side? Or the Geth?"

"Hard to say. Maybe we'll know more after we check the research camp."

"You think anyone got out here alive?" Shepard asked.

"If they were lucky. Maybe they're hiding up in the camp; it's just on the top of this ridge. Up the ramps."

Shepard gave a sharp nod, "Lead the way Williams."

At that moment Nihlus came in over the comm. "Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead, I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

Shepard simply followed the earthen ramp up and around the dig site and up a path that eventually brought them to what must've been the researcher's camp.

"Looks like they hit the camp hard," Williams stated."

_That's an understatement, _Shepard thought. There must have been three temporary shacks at one time, but only two remained. There were also three massive spikes like the ones from before, each holding a body.

"It's a good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up," Kaidan observed.

The sound of screeching metal-on-metal was heard as one of the spikes began to lower back into its tripod with one of the bodies still attached.

"Oh, God! They're still alive!"

After the spike was completely inside its tripod, the previously impaled body pulled itself off the tripod and slowly started to move towards the squad of humans.

"What did the geth do to them?" Ashley asked in shock.

The other two spikes and bodies followed suit, and while it was a surprise for Shepard, one thing was evident: those _things_ were no longer human.

"Take them down."

The creatures, later called husks after the bodies were recovered and examined by Alliance officials, took a lot of damage and let off a strange disrupting wave of energy before going down that Shepard was sure would have fried their shields had they gotten close enough.

"Now we know what those spikes were for," Kaidan stated, "turning our own dead against us."

"It must take a few hours for it to occur though," Ashley responded.

Shepard preferred not to think about it and went on to examine the two shacks in the area for survivors; the first one was empty save for a few items that he converted to omni-gel, but the second one—

"That door." Ashley said, "It's closed. Security lock's engaged"

Being an engineer, Shepard could have hacked the door easily, but decided to let Kaidan prove his tech expertise. It took about a minute, but the door opened, "Good job Lieutenant."

"Thanks Commander."

The whole trio entered the shack and found a male and female scientist.

"Humans! Thank the maker." the female spoke with evident relief in her voice.

"Hurry." the male spoke, "Close the door…Before they come back."

Reassuringly, Shepard spoke, "Don't worry. We'll protect you."

The female spoke again, "Thank you. I think we'll be okay now. It looks like everyone's gone."

Ashley seemed to recognize the female doctor, "You're Dr. Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?"

Dr. Warren was a middle aged woman with few distinguishing features other than her red hair since a true redhead was a rare site in that day and age, "It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp…When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide," Dr. Warren bowed her head, "they gave their lives to save us."

The male, Dr. Manuel, was seemingly older than Dr. Warren due to his dark hair's receding hairline, and more worn face; he spoke like a man on the verge of a breakdown, "No one is saved. The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain."

Shepard was quiet for a moment, _Those men were heroes. _"Is there anything else you can tell me about the attack?"

Dr. Warren shook her head, "It all happened so fast. One second we were gathering up our equipment. The next we were hiding in the shed while geth swarmed over the camp."

Dr. Manuel spoke again, "Agents of the destroyers…Bringers of darkness…Heralds of our extinction."

"We could hear the battle outside: gunfire…screams. I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move…Until you came along."

_Better not to make them relive it more than needed, _Shepard thought. "One more question…Did you notice a turian in the area?"

Dr. Manuel spoke up, "I saw him! The prophet. Leader of the enemy. He was here, before the attack."

_'The prophet?' 'Before the attack?' what?_

"That's impossible," Kaidan pointed out, "Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here."

"My thoughts exactly," Shepard responded.

"I'm sorry," Dr. Warren apologized, "Manuel's still a bit…unsettled. We haven't seen your turian. We've been hiding here."

"What's wrong with your assistant?"

Dr. Warren glanced back at Dr. Manuel, "Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit…unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin."

_True._

"Is it madness to see the future?" Dr. Manuel asked, "To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left."

One of Shepard's eyebrows was slowly rising.

"I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack," Dr. Warren explained.

_And I see they haven't kicked in yet…or have they?_

Shepard looked at Ashley, "Williams, take us to the spaceport."

"You can't stop it. Nobody can stop it," Dr. Manuel pleaded, "Night is falling…The darkness of eternity."

_We can still try._

"Hush, Manuel," Dr. Warren implored, "Go lie down. You'll feel better once the medication kicks in."

_That answers that_, Shepard gave a sharp nod, "You two stay here, we'll send someone to pick you up."

"Thank you Commander."

With that the squad left and continued up the path to the spaceport. They were almost at the crest of the hill when they heard a single gunshot.

_Nihlus found something, _Shepard thought.

"What is that?" Kaidan asked, "Off in the distance."

"It's a ship." Ashley responded, "Look at the size of it!"

Shepard watched it through the scope of his sniper rifle as it flew into orbit. The ship looked vaguely like an Earth squid, with a bulky semi-cylindrical body that tapered off over the rear with five arms extending from its front end, in addition to six jointed legs extending from its main body.

_Good God, _Shepard thought, "That is…Not good…We should go find Nihlus."

The noise they were making alerted a group of geth and some of their creations to their location. The squad took them out from a distance and moved on.

"Commander!" Kaidan called, "There's another shack!"

"I see it Lieutenant…Let's check it out."

Kaidan was already decrypting the locking mechanism when Shepard arrived.

As the door slid open, a male voice called out, "everybody stay calm out there. We're coming out. We're not armed,"

Two men and a woman walked out, one man had a hard face and a goatee, the other was clean-shaven with a receding hairline, and the woman simply wore a hat and dirty clothes; there was nothing really special about any of them.

The woman spoke, "Is it safe? Are they gone?"

"We took care of them," Shepard responded

The man who called out spoke next, "Those things were crawling all around the shed. They would have found us for sure. We owe you our lives."

The woman spoke again, "I—I still can't believe it. When we saw that ship…I thought it was all over!"

"It showed up right before the attack. Knew it was trouble the second I saw it. So we made a break for the sheds."

"What do you remember about the attack?" Shepard asked.

"The three of us were working the crops when that ship showed up. We just saw it and ran. I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew."

The other male farmer spoke up, "They were by the garage. Over near the spaceport. Right where that ship came down. No way they survived."

"You don't know that!" the female interjected, "We survived. If they made it to the garage, they could've had a fighting chance!"

"What can you tell me about the ship?" Shepard asked.

"I was too busy running to get a clear look at it. I think it landed over near the spaceport," the first male answered.

"Tell them about the noise, Cole. That awful noise," the female said.

"It was emitting some kind of signal as it descended. Sounded like the shriek of the damned. Only it was coming from inside your own head."

"It may have been trying to block communications," Shepard pointed out.

"Whatever it was, felt like it was tearing through my skull. Almost made it impossible to think."

_An organic…jammer?...Implications…_ Shepard looked back at his squad and then back at the farmers, "You guys stay here; we have to go."

"Hey, Cole," the other male farmer whispered, "We're just a bunch of farmers. These guys are soldiers. Maybe we should give them the stuff."

Cole looked back at the speaker, "Geeze, Blake. You gotta' learn when to shut up!"

That got Shepard's attention, "You have something to tell me, Cole?"

Cole put up a hand, "Some guys at the spaceport were running a small smuggling ring. Nothing major. In exchange for a cut of the profits, we let them store packages in our sheds."

"What kinds of packages?"

"I found a pistol. Figured it would come in handy if those things came back. But you'll probably get more use out of it than we will."

"We're risking our lives to save this colony." Shepard pointed over his shoulder, "You sure there's nothing else in there that could help us out?"

Cole shrugged, "Yeah, there's one more thing. I was going to sell it after this was over. But you probably deserve it more than I do."

"Whose your contact at the spaceport, Cole?" Ashley cut in, "What's his name?"

Cole put up both of his hands, "He's not a bad guy. I don't want to get him into trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch."

"He might have something to do with this whole attack, Cole." Shepard put in, "We need his name. It's important."

"Yeah, Okay, You're right. His name's Powell. He works the docks at the spaceport…If he's still alive."

Shepard looked at the pistol, his current weapons were far better, so he held the pistol out to Cole, "Keep the pistol, there could be more around here that we've missed," he accepted the grenade though, if nothing else, to get it out of non-military hands, "…I have to go."

OOO

The trio of soldiers left the farmers to themselves and continued on up the stairs to the spaceport and stumbled upon something none of them expected…a dead turian.

"Commander, It's Nihlus," Kaidan informed.

"Evidently he _did_ find something," he responded.

Upon closer inspection, the black-skinned turian had been shot in the back of the head by a weaker weapon, most likely a pistol with no ammo mods as suggested by the fact that the majority of his head was still intact.

"Something's moving!" Ashley alerted, "Over behind those crates!"

All three of them pulled out their pistols and pointed them at where the noise came from.

"Wait!" a male voice yelled, "Don't—Don't shoot! I'm one of you, I'm human."

A man with a scruffy beard and a hat walked out from behind some crates.

"Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed!" Shepard told him.

"I," the man took a breath, "I'm sorry. I was hiding…From those creatures."

The squad holstered their weapons.

At that, the man seemed to calm down more, "My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."

"Another turian?"

"Yes…the other one got here first. He was waiting when your friend showed up. He called him Saren. I think they knew each other."

Shepard looked back at his squad, "That could be the turian that the doctor was talking about."

"Your friend seemed to relax." the man continued, "He let his guard down…and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates."

"Where did he go?"

"He jumped on the cargo train," Powell pointed in its direction, "and headed to the other platform. Probably going after the beacon," he leaned forward on a crate, "I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up. Then the attack…They killed everyone. Everyone! If I hadn't been behind the crates, I'd be dead too."

Something occurred to Shepard, "Wait a minute, you're Cole's contact here on the docks…For the smuggling ring."

Powell took a step back in shock, "What? No! I mean…," he shook his head, "what does it matter now? So I'm a smuggler? Who cares? My supervisor's dead. The entire crew's dead. It doesn't matter now, does it?"

_True, _Thought Shepard, "Anything hidden nearby that we could use against the geth?"

"Well…"Powell said uncertainly, "A shipment of grenades came through last week. Nobody notices if a few small pieces go missing from the military orders."

Shepard could practically see Ashley's anger rising, "You greedy son of a b*tch! We're out here trying to protect your sorry a** and all you can think about is how you can rip us off?!"

Powell put up his hands, "I never thought you'd actually need those grenades! Who'd want to attack Eden Prime? We're just a bunch of farmers! How was I supposed to know?"

_Might as well get them out of his hands_, Shepard thought, _but first, _"Forget about him, Williams, He's not worth it."

She pointed at Powell "You're lucky the commander's here, Powell. Hand over those grenades."

After a little digging in one of the crates, Powell handed Ashley the grenades, "They're yours. Take them. My smuggling days are over. I swear."

_I guess that makes my job easier, _Shepard thought, "A lot of marines died here, Powell. Those grenades could have come in handy," Powell lowered his gaze, "If I were you, I'd think of some way to make it up to them."

Powell looked back at Shepard, "Yeah. Okay. There is something else I was saving…Could be worth a fortune…Experimental Technology. Top of the line," He handed Shepard a high explosive grenade mod, "Take it. I don't need it. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Really… I'm sorry."

_Not exactly what I was thinking, _Shepard thought, _How did he even get this?_

Shepard looked back at his squad, "We need to get to that beacon."

"Take the cargo train," Powell directed, "That's where the other turian went." He covered his face with his hands and said, "I…I can't stay here. I need to get away from all this," and walked away.

The squad readied to move just as a geth drone appeared from below their current platform and behind some crates. Shepard took it out quickly, but it alerted a group of geth that started to open fire on the small squad. All three of them dove behind some nearby crates and quickly returned fire. Shepard attempted to sabotage a few of the geths weapons, while Kaidan and Ashley peppered them with gunfire.

After the first and second geth fell, the squad rushed and took the remaining geth and reached the lower platform that was connected to the long, flat cargo train. As they were boarding, they came under more fire by a few larger geth, later referred to as geth destroyers by Alliance command, and a few normal geth.

Shepard quickly switched to his sniper rifle and attempted to no-scope the nearest destroyer but missed. Luckily, for Shepard, it was focused on Ashley so he had time to allow his rifle to cool down.

Ashley ducked down behind some cover to allow her shields to recharge.

Kaidan took down the destroyer before Shepard could get another shot at it, so he settled on taking down the next nearest geth. His shields disappeared as well, so Shepard jumped behind some cover and took out the remaining geth farther down the train with his rifle.

Ashley was up again, so they all rushed down to the last car of the train, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings looking for any geth drones. When they arrived, Shepard simply hacked the controls and got the car moving to the next area.

OOO

Ashley was sore, the geth from before got her good. She never got a good chance to apply a dose of medi-gel before Commander Shepard rushed off, and while she _could _have applied it during the train-ride over to the next area, Shepard kept them watching for more geth.

They had just arrived at the station when Kaidan informed them, "Demolition charges! The geth must have planted them."

_I'll let them deal with that, I'm not good with decryption, _Ashley thought, "Hurry – we need to find them all and shut them down!"

Shepard quickly took down the first one and did a quick scan with his omni-tool, "There are three more…lets go."

_Well, he _is _an engineer I guess._

Just as the squad was going up the ramp, they came under fire again, but Shepard mostly ignored it and tried to close the distance to the geth and find some cover.

"Ashley, stay down," Shepard ordered.

She complied and thought, _He must have patched himself into the biosensors of my suit...definitely an engineer._

Ashley watched from behind cover as Shepard simultaneously rushed across a bridge that was connecting both sides of the platform for the spaceport and shot a geth in the head while moving which Kaidan finished off with his assault rifle. She then saw Shepard blow a geth sniper away with his explosive rounds and melee the final geth to finish it off with a close range sniper shot. He and Kaidan then split up to disable the remaining bombs, and while Kaidan did come under some fire from a few remaining geth, he used the dark energy of his biotics to throw them onto the electrically charged track of the train.

"Clear!" Kaidan informed them, and Ashley rose from her cover and rejoined them.

"Nice moves LT," she complimented Kaidan.

Kaidan looked at her, "LT?"

"It's easier."

Kaidan shrugged and waited for the commander to dig through some crates.

"Hey Ashley! Come here once," the Commander called.

She quickly complied, "What do you need Commander?"

He stood up and looked at her, "Do you have a medical exoskeleton installed in that suit?" he was holding something in his hands.

"Uh…no…"

He gave her a slight smile, "Here," he gave her the medical exoskeleton suit enhancement he was holding onto, "install that…and I apologize for not authorizing the use of the medi-gel earlier, I couldn't hack that far into your suit."

She gave him an odd look as she accepted the enhancement.

"That sounded bad…"

"Yeah…here's my codes," she transmitted her suit's id to his omni-tool.

"I apologize for not asking sooner, I was in a rush and it slipped my mind."

Ashley gave out an amused "Ha," _he's fumbling._

"Ookay. Install that and let's go."

"On it commander."

The squad continued on and took out a small squad of geth and their husk creations to secure the beacon. The beacon was simply a flat pillar with a circular angled base that a stopped about a quarter of the way up the main pillar of the beacon. There was also a light shooting out of the highest point of the pillar.

As Commander Shepard called in the ship for a pickup, To Ashley, Kaidan said, "This is amazing…Actual working Prothean Technology. Unbelievable!"

Referring the emanating light, Ashley responded, "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," she took a step closer, "Something must've activated it."

She heard Shepard say, "Roger Normandy, Standing by."

As she curiously walked forward, something strange happened, Ashley's vision started to blur, and the beacon started becoming brighter. Then in a moment, an invisible force latched onto her and started pulling her towards the beacon. She was only a few feet away when she felt another force pull her and throw her away. When she looked back after she landed, she saw Shepard suspended in the air seemingly in pain.

"Shepard!" She called, but he did not answer.

She tried going back to pull him out, but Kaidan restrained her and said, "No! Don't touch him! It's too dangerous!"

After a few more seconds, the beacon exploded and Shepard was thrown back. Ashley quickly rushed up to him and checked the bio-readings of his suit, he was still alive, but out cold. As the Normandy landed, she and Kaidan quickly hoisted him onto their shoulders, onto the ship, and onto one of the beds in the med-bay.

After a few minutes of scans, the Normandy's doctor said that he would be fine and would probably wake a little before reaching the Citadel. In which case she helped the doctor remove his armor and put it away in his locker down in the cargo hold.

The Captain of the ship, Anderson, or something along those lines, came down to the cargo bay and asked her a few questions about what happened up to the point where the Commander was knocked out. She related the events of the mission as best she could with the information she knew. He seemed satisfied with the information and welcomed her aboard the Normandy. He then assigned her a locker that apparently belonged to a Jenkins that died on the mission. He also informed her that she was free to use the sleeping pods on the second level.

Ashley checked on the commander one more time, and subsequently learned that the doctor was referred to as Doctor Chakwas. She then realized that she hadn't slept for…she didn't know how long, so she decided to sleep at least for a little while in one of the pods.

As she set the timer for the pod, She couldn't help but think, _I messed up…bad, I never should have approached that beacon, I've cost the Commander his mission and nearly his life...And I lost my whole team to boot_, the glass front of the pod opened and she stepped into it and laid back_…definitely not a good day._

* * *

**If you are reading this, then thank you for finding this interesting enough to read to the end of the first chapter. I apologize for the length and the lack of the promised banter and dynamics, after the second chapter for sure things will be more interesting…hopefully…we'll see where my mind goes…I cannot promise, though, that my chapters will be any shorter than this…I write and play until I find a good place to stop…soo…yeah…**

**There were also a few points that I glazed over due to the fact that they would have been redundant to the story, or Shepard (or his squad) were not there to witness them, namely Nihlus getting shot…**

**I used Mass Effect wiki to get the description of the reaper, though I tweaked it a little…I am not very good with explaining how things look as you may have noticed (the beacon was difficult)**

**Please review (be gentle). If you find any memes, comics, or ideas you would like me to integrate into the story later on, post a link/comment (or PM me) though it should be relevant to the game I'm on (eg. no ME2 memes in ME1 and so on), and they should be lore friendly… If I like them, I will try to integrate (if you are going to post a link, try replacing the "." with spaces to see if it will stay, I can fill it in).**

**Oh yeah…I forgot to mention this before…This story contains spoilers…**

**10 pages lol**


	2. Chapter 2: The Spectre

**Sorry about length…Updated 5/17/13 (krogan description)  
**

Chapter 2: The Spectre

Hundreds of images were running through the Commander's head.

_Death_…

He couldn't make sense of anything.

_War…_

What was going on?

_Destruction…_

He didn't understand…

_Defeat…_

A warning?

_Extinction…_

OOO

Shepard slowly awoke to see the blue ceiling of the Normandy's med-bay coming into view.

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas!" Ashley was speaking, "I think he's waking up."

Shepard slowly sat up and put his feet on the floor, but was overcome with an extreme feeling of vertigo, so he decided to sit and wait for the feeling to pass. He heard Dr. Chakwas walking towards him so he raised his head and followed her with his eyes as she entered his visual range.

"You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?"

_You don't want to know_, "How did I end up here?" he replied still woozy, "How long was I out?

The silver-haired doctor must've had an idea about how he felt since she didn't press him, "About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think."

Ashley started speaking from behind Shepard, "It's my fault. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to pull me away."

Shepard vaguely realized that she must've been blaming herself for the whole thing, "You had no way to know what would happen."

He didn't see Ashley's small smile in response.

"Actually," Dr. Chakwas informed them, "we don't even know if that's what set it off. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out."

"The beacon exploded." Ashley clarified as she walked into Shepard's visual range, "A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you out cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back here to the ship."

He was slowly regaining his bearings and finally regained the ability to nod, "Appreciate it."

_Did she just blush? _Shepard thought.

"Physically you're fine," Dr. Chakwas continued, "But I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves."

Feeling much more focused, Shepard stood up and leaned back against the bed.

"I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming."

There was a short pause before he spoke, "I saw—," Shepard shook his head, he didn't know how to explain it, "I'm not sure what I saw. Death…Destruction…Nothing's really clear."

"Hmm," Dr. Chakwas paused in thought, "I better add this to my report. It may—Oh, Captain Anderson," Dr. Chakwas straightened up.

The dark skinned Captain walked up and everyone turned to face him, "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?"

"All the readings look normal," She replied, "I'd say the commander's going to be fine."

"Glad to hear it. Shepard, I need to speak with you," He looked at Dr. Chakwas and Ashley, "—in private."

Ashley gave a quick salute, "Aye, aye Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me," then walked out of the med-bay with the doctor.

Captain Anderson returned his gaze to Commander Shepard, "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're okay?"

Shepard let out a breath, "I don't like soldiers dying under my command, sir."

"Jenkins wasn't your fault," Anderson reassured the Commander, "you did a good job, Shepard."

_Something felt wrong and I sent him out there anyway._

Seeing he wasn't convinced, Anderson continued, "You guys were sent in there blind. His death was the fault of the Alliance."

Shepard wasn't sure he entirely believed him, but he shook his head to clear the thought, "You needed to see me in private, Captain?"

"I won't lie to you, Shepard," Anderson straightened up, "things look bad…Nihlus is dead, the beacon was destroyed, and the geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers."

"I didn't do anything wrong, Captain." _I guess, _"Hopefully, the Council can see that."

Anderson turned away, "I'll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You're a damned hero in my books."

Anderson paused to let his statement sink in, "But that's not why I'm here. It's Saren…that _other_ turian…He's a Specter, one of the best….A living legend." Anderson turned back to face Shepard, "But if he's working with the geth, it means he's gone rogue…And a rogue Spectre's trouble. Saren's very dangerous, and hates humans."

"Why?" Shepard asked.

"He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the galaxy." Anderson averted his gaze, "A lot of aliens think that way," he looked back at Shepard, "Most of them don't do anything about it." Anderson paused, "Saren has allied himself with the geth. I don't know how, I don't know why…I only know it had something to do with that beacon."

_Obviously, _Shepard thought.

"You were there just before that thing self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?"

Shepard leaned back against the bed again, "Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of…vision."

"A vision? Of what?" Anderson moved to stand in front of Shepard.

Shepard was looking at the floor, recalling the images that had been burned into his memory, "I saw synthetics, Geth maybe, slaughtering people…butchering them."

"We need to report this to the Council, Shepard."

One of Shepard's eyebrows went up, "What are we going to tell them? I had a bad dream?"

Anderson shook off the sarcastic remark, "We don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it…And I know Saren. I know his reputation, his politics," he paced slowly as he spoke, "he believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war!"

He stopped pacing and faced Shepard again, "He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of geth at his command, and he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy!"

"I will find some way to take him down," Shepard responded with conviction.

"It's not that easy."

_Damn…_, Shepard thought, _sarcastic mind up and running…Check._

"He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything. That's why we need the Council on our side."

"We prove Saren's gone rogue and the Council will revoke his Spectre status."

"I'll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with them. He'll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel."

Shepard straightened up, "Understood, sir."

"We should be getting close. Head up to the bridge and tell Joker to bring us in to dock," with that Captain Anderson turned on his heel and left the med-bay and returned to his quarters.

Shepard waited a few seconds longer to make sure he was fit to walk, then began the somewhat short walk up to the bridge, Ashley caught his attention, though, before he left the mess with a simple, "Hey, Commander."

"Hey Ashley," he responded in kind and stopped to chat.

"I'm glad you're okay, Commander. The crew could use some good news after what happened to Jenkins."

"He was a valuable part of this crew…he will be missed."

"Part of me feels guilty over what happened. If Jenkins was still alive, I might not be here."

_I don't see h-…oh…that's what she meant…well. _"You're a good soldier, Williams. You belong on the Normandy_._"

"Thanks, Commander. That means a lot coming from you. I've never met anyone who was awarded the Star of Terra."

_Uh…Lets not go there…_ "There's nothing special about me, Williams. Anyone would have done the same."

Williams let off a slight laugh, "Held off an entire enemy platoon? Alone? With all due respect, Commander, I think you've got somebody watching over you."

_She went there…let's change the subject… _"Things were pretty rough down there. Are you okay?"

Ashley could obviously tell he was trying to avoid the subject so she didn't press, "I've seen friends die before…Comes with being a marine...But to see my whole unit wiped out…"

_Wrong subject…sorry, _Shepard thought.

Ashley shook her head, "And you never get used to seeing dead civilians. But things could have been a lot worse if you hadn't shown up."

"We couldn't have done it without you, Williams."

"Thanks, Commander. I have to admit, I was a little worried about being assigned to the Normandy_. _It's nice when someone makes you feel welcome."

Shepard gave Ashley a reassuring smile, "I think you're going to fit in here just fine, Williams."

"Thanks Commander."

Shepard gave her a reassuring nod and continued on to the bridge.

"Glad to see you're okay, Commander," Kaidan said as he walked by.

"Thanks, we're going to be pulling into the Citadel soon. Get Ashley and meet me up there if you feel like watching."

"Yes sir."

After walking up the stairs and into the CIC, Navigator Pressley caught Shepard in passing and expressed his happiness that Shepard was okay despite losing Jenkins.

"He'll be missed." Shepard simply replied and moved on.

After a little more walking, Shepard finally reached the bridge and stood behind Joker, the Normandy's wisecracking pilot."

Unlike most people in the Alliance Military, Joker always wore a scruffy beard as well as a dark blue ball-cap with the Normandy's "SR1" logo placed prominently on the crown. He had blue-green eyes overshadowed by somewhat flared eyebrows. For some reason, he rarely left the bridge.

"Good timing, Commander," Joker commended as Shepard approached, "I was just about to bring us in to the Citadel. See that taxpayer money at work."

_How did he know I was here?_ Shepard thought.

The Normandy made the final jump through the Mass Relay into the Widow system and exited FTL speeds. Shepard then saw a sight he had not seen in a very long time…the seat of galactic power and influence…the Citadel.

The Citadel was a massive space station similar in shape to a pentagram. It consisted of a central ring surrounded by five massive arms which protruded from its edges. In times of crisis, the arms could be closed to prevent ships from leaving or entering the massive structure, thought they were usually kept in the mostly open position to allow optimum gravity to be generated by its rotation.

"Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley said in awe referring to a massive dreadnaught that had been floating just inside the arms of the Citadel.

"The Destiny Ascension…Flagship of the Citadelfleet," Kaidan informed her.

The Ascensionwas an asari ship that was at least four times larger than any Alliance vessel. It consisted of a tubular main body with one flowing point pointing in each direction: up, down, left, and right. It apparently held a main gun that was equal in firepower to the collective strength of the entire asari fleet.

"Well size isn't everything," Joker quipped.

"Why so touchy, Joker?" Ashley asked.

"I'm just saying: you need firepower, too."

"Look at that monster!" she replied pointing at it, "Its main gun could rip through the barriers on any ship in the Alliance fleet."

"Good thing it's on our side, then," Kaidan stated.

_Yeah,_ was all Shepard could think, _Just as beautiful as I remember._

"Citadel Control, this is SSV Normandy requesting permission to land," Joker announced through the external ship communications.

"Stand by for clearance, Normandy_,_" was the response, "…Clearance granted. You may begin your approach…Transferring you to an Alliance operator."

"Roger, Alliance tower…Normandy out."

After a few more seconds of waiting, they were contacted by the Alliance Tower and given a berth. It was abnormal that they had such a smooth time of getting docked with the Citadel since normally it would take hours of talking back and forth just to get clearance, but, yet again, since they were in an Alliance frigate that had just returned from an important mission, it was crucial they be let through quickly.

"Enjoy the view?" Captain Anderson asked as he walked up behind the three people and the pilot.

"Never gets old," the Commander replied.

"I hear that…I need the three of you to get suited up. We are working on setting up a meeting with the Council in a few hours.

"All three of us?"

"Yes, the ground team. Only you three know what actually happened down on Eden Prime."

Shepard gave a salute, "Understood, sir, we'll be ready."

The other two agreed.

"Good to hear, meet me in the human embassy" Anderson replied and exited the airlock.

After he left, Ashley asked, "Now what?"

"Now…" Shepard looked at her, "We get suited up."

OOO

"This is an outrage!" Ambassador Udina fumed at the orange holograms of the three most powerful people in the galaxy, "The Council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!"

"The turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador," the Salarian Councilor calmly responded, though there was a silent edge to his words.

Salarians vaguely resemble the reports of alien sightings back in the twentieth century in terms of proportions, though Salarians are significantly taller…and amphibians. Their heads are long and thin and have a pair of horns protruding from the very tops just above their big eyes. Their skin tones, as well as their eyes, vary greatly in terms of color and shade; their eyes are large and oval with pupils that are shaped like a wide slit oriented horizontally. They also have thin membranes in place of eyelids. Due to their high metabolisms and photographic memories, they tend to do everything faster than the rest of the creatures of the galaxy, from talking to learning. As a side effect of their fast metabolisms, though, they tend to age quickly and rarely live past 40.

"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse," the Asari Councilor continued.

The angelic asari are a mono-gendered race that most closely resemble human females with their only physical differences being their skin, which can range anywhere from a blue to a dark purple complexion, and rigid, tentacle-like scalp crests in place of hair. Along with those features, some asari have their own unique facial markings that vary widely in color and shape, though the colors tend to be either lighter or darker versions of their actual skin colors. They are native to the planet Thessia in the Athena Nebula, and are often considered the most powerful and respected sentient species in the galaxy due to their elegance, diplomacy, and their natural biotic aptitude. Due to their robust cellular regenerative system, they are also well known to reach over 1000 years of age.

"What about Saren?"Udina asked, "You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre. I demand action!"

"You don't get to make demands of the Council, _Ambassador_," the Turian Ambassador countered while simultaneously putting Udina in his place.

Turians typically stand over six feet tall, have two long, proportionately thick fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand, each tipped with talons, and a set of mandibles around their mouths. The most distinguishing feature of turians is their metallic carapace, which contains trace amounts of thulium to defend against the greater levels of solar radiation that penetrate their Palaven's, their homeworld in the Apein Crest cluster, weak magnetic field. Their features are avian, making them resemble humanoid birds or raptors…though they don't lay eggs, unlike salarians. They are also fairly recognizable by their voices, which have a distinctive flanging effect that some species tend to find soothing or sexy, and their facial tattoos that they decorate themselves with.

"Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren," the Asari Councilor clarified, "we will discuss the C-Sec findings at the hearing…Not before."

With that, the holograms of all three councilors faded out.

Udina turned grimly towards Anderson who was standing silently a short distance away, "Captain Anderson. I see you brought half your crew with you."

Anderson simply glazed over Udina's mood, "Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions."

_Oh, great, _Ashley thought.

"I have the mission reports." Udina retorted, "I assume they're accurate?"

"They are," Anderson confirmed, "Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience."

"They gave this one high priority, and they were not happy about it. Saren's their top agent. They don't like him being accused of treason."

"Saren's a treat to every human colony out there. If they don't stop him, I will."

_Go Shepard!_ Ashley thought.

"Settle down, Commander." Udina responded, "You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres."

_Spectre candidate? This is starting to get interesting…_Ashley stood from leaning on the balcony.

"The mission on Eden Prime was a chance to prove you could get the job done." Udina continued, "Instead, Nihlus ended up dead and the beacon was destroyed."

"That's Saren's fault, not his!" Anderson interjected.

"Then we better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accusations. Otherwise the Council might use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres."

Udina looked back at Anderson, "Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing."

Udina then practically ordered them to meet at the Citadel Tower and assured them that they would have clearance.

As the door closed behind him, Ashley muttered, "And that's why I hate politicians," just loud enough for Shepard and Kaidan to hear.

Shepard sighed and shook his head, "I guess we'd better go…right after I hack his computer."

_Really!? An ambassador's computer? True Udina was annoying, but you had to hack his computer?_

Shepard cocked his head as he read the files he recovered, "Unusual energy reading in the Argos Rho cluster? I'll have to report this to Anderson," he thought for a moment, "Right after we get the current deal sorted out."

"Ready, Commander?" Kaidan asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Shepard replied, "Let's go."

With that, Shepard called up a taxi and flew the squad to the Presidium.

OOO

The hearing, in simple terms, went bad. The evidence they threw at Saren was weak either way they looked at it, their eyewitness' judgment was just not enough, and on top of that, C-Sec found no good evidence to confirm the accusation of treason. Anderson being involved did not help either due to his previous involvement with Saren; it made the Council question their motives. In short…they had nothing.

After the hearing, the attendees met up to discuss their options.

"What's our next step?" Shepard asked.

Udina put his hand over his mouth in thought, "As a Spectre, he's virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him."

"What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator?" Kaidan asked, "We saw him arguing with the executor."

Before the hearing, the squad walked into an argument between two turians about needing more time for the investigation into Saren; after the executor walked away, Garrus spoke to the commander and said he had a gut feeling that Saren was up to something and hoped that the Council would listen to him _them._

"That's right!" Ashley responded, "He was asking for more time to finish his report, it seems like he was close to finding something."

"Any ideas on where he is?" Shepard asked the group.

Udina nodded, "I have a contact in C-Sec who can help us track Garrus down, his name is Harkin."

"Forget it," Anderson stated, "they suspended him last month…Drinking on the job…I won't waste my time with that idiot."

Udina crossed his arms, "You won't have to, Captain. I don't want the Council using your past history with Saren as an excuse to ignore anything we turn up. Shepard can handle this."

Shepard nodded, "I'll take care of it."

Udina nodded at Shepard, "Now that that's settled, I need to take care of some business," he looked at Anderson, said, "Captain, meet me in my office later, there's some things we have to discuss," and walked away.

Anderson sighed and looked back at Shepard, "Harkin's probably getting drunk at Chora's Den…It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the wards."

Shepard cocked his head, "I thought you said he was a drunken idiot."

Anderson looked annoyed just thinking about the man, "It couldn't hurt to go talk to him. Just be careful. I wouldn't call him reliable."

"Do you have any other sources?"

"Yeah, one more: Barla Von, in the financial district, a Volus. Rumor has it that he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"The Shadow Broker?" Ashley asked.

"An information dealer…buys and sells information to the highest bidder. I've heard Barla Von's one of the top representatives. He might know something, but his information won't come cheap."

Shepard put his hand to his chin in thought out loud, "Money won't be an issue," he looked back up at Anderson, "I'll talk to him if this deal with Harkin falls through."

"Good luck, Commander. I'll be over in the ambassador's office if you need me." With that Anderson left them to themselves and went to catch up with Udina.

"And on that note…" Shepard looked at his squad, "Guess we have some work to do…Better get started"

On the way to the rapid transit terminal, they came across a Salarian doing something with his omni-tool to a keeper, the little, green spiderlike caretakers of the Citadel that had been there since the Asari first found the massive space station. People weren't supposed to bother the keepers, so, being an Alliance official, Shepard decided to investigate.

Chorban was the name of the Salarian, and his reasoning for scanning the keepers intrigued Shepard enough that he offered him his assistance.

"Breaking the law Shepard?" Ashley asked as they walked away.

Shepard shrugged, "I'm a sucker for things that intrigue me."

Ashley just shook her head in amusement and thought sarcastically, _What a rebel…hacking an ambassador's computer, scanning keepers…What's next?_

As the commander hailed a cab, Kaidan spoke up, trying to start some small talk, "So…scanning keepers and…Chora's Den?"

"Yup" Shepard responded.

"Isn't that a—"

"Yup."

"Well…this'll be interesting…"

Shepard completed his request at the terminal and looked back at Kaidan, "We're on a mission Lieutenant…" as he leaned back against the terminal, there was a slight gleam in his eye, "At least…for now."

Ashley let out an amused snort, "Why did I have to be stuck with two men?"

"Because two women wouldn't have been as interesting, Chief?" Kaidan asked.

"Well, can't deny that…"

Shepard just shook his head as the cab arrived, "Let's get this over with."

They all boarded the vehicle and began the trip to the lower wards.

OOO

The ride to the nearest sky car docking platform, just underneath the hospital, near the markets, was relatively uneventful. They had a short conversation about how the Council ignored their evidence against Saren, of which Shepard reminded them that their evidence wasn't very solid as it was. Ashley ended the conversation by sharing her discontent with politics.

With a few minutes of walking and a turn down a dim alley, they arrived at a corridor outside the gentlemen club's circular balcony.

_Here we go, _Shepard thought.

He stepped out onto the balcony and almost immediately heard someone say, "That's him."

_That can't be good_

Two turians opened fire on the squad immediately, but luckily, their kinetic barriers gave them enough time to get to cover and pull out their guns to return fire. Kaidan pulled one turian with his biotics and dropped him into the hole in the center of the balcony, in which case the turian fell a distance and landed with a sharp crunch and splat. Shepard sabotaged the weapons of the other and allowed Ashley to finish him off with a few bursts of her assault rifle.

"Those must've been Saren's men," Kaidan observed.

Shepard glanced over the avian features of the remaining turian that was now dead on the floor, "no way to tell now…Kaidan. Inform C-Sec of the situation."

"Aye Commander."

With that, the squad continued into the club itself and noticed something rather unusual, or rather a lack of something, nobody seemed to have noticed the gunfire.

Shepard just shook his head.

The club consisted of a circular central bar with asari dancers dancing on a large elevated platform above the bar itself. There were booths placed along the perimeter of the room that held both tables and asari or human dancers that were being ogled at by groups mostly consisting humans and turians. There was also a large storage area in the back along with a manager's office supposedly beyond that. Anderson was right when he said it, the place was quite dingy.

Finding Harkin wasn't very difficult; they had only to look for the C-Sec uniform.

As they approached his table, they couldn't help but overhear a conversation between a massive krogan with three jagged claw marks running down his face, a battlemaster the commander assumed, and a krogan bouncer.

The krogan are a species of large reptilian bipeds native to the planet Tuchanka, in the Krogan DMZ cluster, which is a world known for its harsh environments, scarce resources, and overabundance of vicious predators. Krogan normally stand over 7 feet tall, from to the tops of their humps to the bottoms of their feet, and, when combined with their armor, can weigh nearly one ton. They have three fingers on each hand as well as three toes on each foot. Their eyes are wide-set and allow them 240-degree vision. They have narrow pupils, similar to a cat, with irises that can be red, green, amber, or blue. They also have large bone head-plates that cover the tops of their heads like a helmet. Their large shoulder humps store nutrients that enable them to go a long time without food, and their thick hides are virtually impervious to cuts, scrapes, and other environmental hazards…making them devastating in combat scenarios. They are the only known species that can outlive the asari.

"Back off Wrex," the bouncer threatened, "Fist told us to take you down if you showed up."

"What are you waiting for?" the larger krogan, Wrex, replied menacingly, "I'm standing right here. This is Fist's only chance. If he's smart, he'll take it."

"He's not coming out, Wrex. End of story."

Wrex took a step closer to the bouncer, "This story is just beginning."

With that, he brushed past Shepard and his squad and said, "Out of my way, humans, I have no quarrel with you."

_Thank God for that, _Shepard thought. There was a big difference between fighting a krogan in close combat and on the battlefield.

"What was that about?" Kaidan asked.

"Who knows," Ashley replied, "Let's just try not to get caught in the middle."

Shepard just shook his head and continued on to Harkin's table, "Harkin…I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Military, I need some information."

"Alliance military…Humph," Harkin sounded like a man who wasn't worth the air he was breathing, and was perfectly fine with it, "I could've been a marine you know. Instead I joined the damned Citadel Security…Biggest mistake of my life."

_Not your only mistake it seems, _Shepard thought.

Harkin was a balding older man with a grey goatee and eyebrows. His hair was strangely darker than his facial hair, probably s result of wearing a hat most of the time in C-Sec.

"I'm looking for a C-Sec officer…A turian named Garrus." Shepard stated.

"Garrus? Ha! You must be one of Captain Anderson's crew. Poor b**tard's still trying to take Saren down, eh?"

"Irrelevent...Do you know where he is?" Shepard was starting to feel a lot of anger towards the man sitting in front of him, just by how he talked.

"I know where he is, but you gotta' tell me something first," Harkin leaned towards the commander, "Did the captain let you in on his big secret?"

"I don't care…I just need to know where Garrus is."

"But it's all related…," Harkin sat back again, "The captain used to be a Spectre. Didn't know that, did you? It was all very hush-hush…The first human ever given that honor. And then he blew it…Screwed up his mission so bad they kicked him out. Of course, he blames Saren, says the turian set him up."

Shepard's anger was rising, "First, I know for a fact that he wasn't a Spectre, but a Spectre candidate, second, it's his word against Saren's, and as of this moment, I am more apt to believe his, and third…" Shepard paused to let his anger simmer down, "just tell me where Garrus went."

"Fine, fine," Harkin waved his hand dismissively, "He was sniffing around Dr. Michel's office. She runs the med clinic on the other side of the wards. Last I heard…he was going back there."

"That's back near where we were dropped off, Commander," Kaidan piped in.

Shepard looked back at Harkin, "I'm out of here."

After that, Shepard toned out anything else Harkin said after him and left the club.

After a little walking, he calmed down just enough to hear Ashley say, "—probably right. Still, I'd like to hear what the captain has to say about this."

"About Captain Anderson being a Spectre?"

"Yeah, Commander."

Shepard was making a brisk pace towards the markets to calm himself down before checking Dr. Michel's clinic. "As I said before, he was a Spectre candidate, and not…a full Spectre."

"Still…you would think he would tell us…and…how do you know?"

They were back in the dim alley now, and Shepard was feeling much better, "Would you like people to know of your greatest failure?"

Ashley was silent for a moment, "I guess not…But still, How did you know?"

Shepard looked back at her over his shoulder with that glint from before in his eye, "I'm an engineer…sometimes I get bored."

Ashley was taken aback, "So you hack Alliance databases?"

As they rounded the corner to the markets, Shepard looked at Ashley with a sarcastically emotionless face, "No…well, not so much that anyone can prove it," Shepard shrugged, "After a while, they just started paying me _to_ hack the system."

Ashley's mouth fell open, "You stole money?! From the Alliance?!"

Shepard and the squad walked up the edge of a balcony that was over one of the massive viewports that overlooked the arms of the Citadel.

Shepard leaned back against one of the railings and looked at Ashley, "What kind of person do you think I am? I'm no thief. They literally started paying me to hack in. I send them a process on how I did it, and they create a patch that covers the hole, rinse and repeat…In fact, I have one I've been working on for a few weeks just about ready to send out."

Kaidan was admiring the view of the Citadel out the windows, "I can understand it."

Ashley just looked between the two and shook her head.

Shepard joined Kaidan in looking out the window.

"Big place," Kaidan said.

"That your professional opinion, sir?" Ashley responded sarcastically.

Shepard observed the huge scope of the Citadel, and saw among the arms thousands upon thousands of sky cars flying back and forth across and between the wards.

Living on space ships his whole life gave Shepard a certain respect for structures in space, but the Citadel was one-of-a-kind, "This isn't a station; it's a city," he said realization dawning.

"There must be millions here," Kaidan pointed out in awe, "It can't be possible to track everyone coming and going.

"This makes Jump Zero look like a porta-john," Ashley responded, "and it's the largest deep space station the Alliance has."

Kaidan nodded, "Jump Zero was big. But this is a whole 'nother scale. Look at the ward arms…How do they keep all that mass from flying apart?"

Something occurred to Shepard, _This is why they are unwilling to help us…they control the policies of all of these people, and Saren is one that could affect all of them if we are right…if they have to make a tough choice, they have to be sure…_

"The council represents more races that I thought," He voiced, "No wonder they're careful with newcomers."

"They probably just want to keep everything running. It has to be hard keeping all these cultures working together."

"One wrong assumption could start a war on their doorstep…if they have to make a change, they have to be sure it's for the better as a whole..."

"Or maybe they just don't like humans," Ashley put in somewhat humorously.

"Heh," the Commander looked at Ashley, "Why not? We've got oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love. According to the old vids, we have everything they want."

Ashley raised her voice a little and looked back at the Commander, "If you expect to get me in a tin-foil miniskirt and thigh-high boots, I want dinner first… uh…," Ashley straightened up and looked back out the viewport awkwardly, "sir."

Shepard had a brief flash of the Chief in the aforementioned getup, but quickly Xed it out in his mind.

Kaidan was obviously enjoying this, "That'll be enough Chief."

"At ease, Lieutenant," Shepard said wittily "can't see her in a skirt anyway."

Ashley was beginning to blush, "Damn straight you can't."

Shepard couldn't keep the smile off his face, "You guys ready to go?"

They both replied in affirmative, though Ashley's was still somewhat shaken, and the group continued to Dr. Michel's clinic.

OOO

_Okay, I'm in the clinic, now to get to a good position._ Garrus wasn't entirely sure how he managed to get into the small clinic without being noticed by any of the four human thugs threatening the doctor, but he wasn't about to question good luck.

"I didn't tell anyone," the doctor pleaded in her French accent, "I swear!"

Garrus was almost at the corner of the long counter that he was sneaking past.

"That was smart, Doc," the supposed leader of the thugs said.

Garrus reached the corner.

"Now if Garrus comes around, you stay smart. Keep your mouth shut or we'll—"

Just at that moment, three heavily armed humans walked into the clinic."

_Perfect, _Garrus thought.

The thug grabbed the doctor, spun her around to use her as a shield, and pointed his pistol at the intruders.

"Who are you?!" he challenged

"Let her go," one of the humans responded.

Garrus peaked back at the ones who just entered and recognized the one who spoke as Commander Shepard from before.

Seizing the moment, Garrus spun around the corner and took the thug holding onto the doctor down with a headshot using his pistol. The remaining three were taken down quickly by the commander and his squad by using a combination of well-placed shots, a now exploded emergency fire suppressor, and biotics.

"Perfect timing, Shepard," Garrus acknowledged, "gave me a clear shot at that b**tard."

"You took him down clean. Nice shot."

"Sometimes you get lucky." Garrus looked at the doctor who in return looked extremely grateful, "Dr. Michel? Are you hurt?"

"No," She responded, still shaken, "I'm okay. Thanks to you…All of you."

"Why were they threatening you?" Shepard asked the doctor, "Who do they work for?"

"They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up and keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian."

"What quarian?"

The doctor told them a story about how a quarian had found some sensitive information, and how she had been shot while trying to get an audience with the council. She then told them how she suggested the quarian trade the information with the Shadow Broker in exchange for a safe place to hide.

"Where is she now?" the Commander asked.

"I put her in contact with Fist, he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

_Wait…Fist? Crap,_ Garrus thought. "He's not anymore." Garrus informed them, "Now he works for Saren…And the Shadow Broker isn't too happy about it."

The doctor looked shocked, "Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him. Saren must've made him quite the offer."

Garrus looked at the commander, "That quarian must have something Saren wants…Something worth crossing the Shadow Broker to get."

The commander thought for a moment, "She must have something that proves he's a traitor," He looked back at the doctor, "Did the quarian mention anything about Saren or the geth?"

The doctor took a moment to gather her thoughts, "She did! She said the information she was going to trade had something to do with the geth."

"That information would be valuable," Garrus pointed out, "there's no way the Council can ignore this."

"I guess it's time we paid Fist a visit," Shepard said seriously.

"This is your show, Shepard. But I want to bring Saren down just as much as you do. I'm coming with you."

Shepard was silent for a moment, contemplating, "Welcome aboard then."

Something occurred to Garrus, "You know, the Shadow broker hired a krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to take Fist out as well, maybe we could bring him in on this too."

The female human behind the commander spoke up, "Yeah, we saw him in the bar."

Shepard nodded, "A krogan could come in handy."

"Last I heard," Garrus continued, "he was at the C-Sec Academy."

"What's he doing there?" the male human behind the commander asked.

The commander looked back at him, "We saw him making threats back at Chora's Den; he was probably picked up by the officers that cleaned up our little mess on the balcony."

"That was you guys that did that?" Garrus asked, "Well, either way, if you hurry, you can catch him there before he leaves."

"We'll do that," the commander looked back at his female squad member, "Ashley, go inform Anderson of our progress in Udina's office; ask him to set up a meeting with the Council."

"On it Commander," She responded and walked out.

"Garrus, meet Kaidan Alenko…Now let's go recruit a krogan."

OOO

**This would probably be a good place to take a break if this feels like a grind; this is right around the ½ way point of the chapter…**

OOO

Recruiting Wrex went surprisingly smooth. They caught up with him having a "talk" with a C-Sec officer. It was kind of amusing really, the officer let him off with a warning in which the huge krogan countered with a warning of his own: he was going to kill Fist. The officer then threatened to arrest him in which he once again countered by challenging the officer to try. Luckily, most likely for the officer, Wrex noticed Shepard and his small team and blew off anything the officer was about to do or say by approaching the commander. After a short introduction, the commander stated his intentions about going after Fist and his assumption that Wrex would like to come along. Wrex contemplated the commander's name for a moment, then gave him the same warning about killing Fist that he gave the officer, and…shook his hand.

On the way back to the gentlemen's club, an investigative reporter named Emily Wong caught their attention as well. She said she was investigating corruption on the citadel and was hoping that he would share anything he found in his own investigation with her since there were certain places she didn't have access to. He asked her how she knew his investigation would help her, to which she replied with logic by implying that if someone as famous as him was investigating something, it had to be big. Satisfied, he replied that if he found anything relevant, he would share it with her.

OOO

Shepard, Garrus, Kaidan, and Wrex, were once again standing outside the club Chora's Den. All evidence of the firefight from before was gone, but things evidently were not going to improve since the club was completely shut down. It normally wouldn't be enough to cause surprise, but it being about midday, well, relative to Citadel time, the club had no reason to be closed. Wrex's threats must've shaken Fist.

"Kaidan, go inform Anderson of our progress and inform him that we will probably be returning with a quarian in tow…also, inform me as to when the meeting is…"

Kaidan looked at both the turian and the krogan before replying, "Aye, sir," and walking off.

After his squad member was gone, Shepard told his remaining squad members, "Pull out your guns guys…I've got a bad feeling about this."

They both complied, and the three of them cautiously entered the club.

OOO

_Weak, weak, weak_, was the only thought running through Wrex's head as they fought their way through the club and into the office in back, _this is the best Fist has?_

The group now stood before a locked door that Garrus was in the process of overriding with his C-Sec clearance. Wrex didn't entirely care for the turian very much, didn't really care for any turian since the genophage, but the human fascinated him. For one thing, he was the hero of Elysium, and for another, he was the weirdest soldier he had ever seen, a combat engineer with sniper rifle training. The commander took out at least half of the thugs in the room by no-scoping them one at a time with explosive rounds, and while explosive rounds were fairly forgiving if you missed, it was still impressive…for a human.

"You have that door yet? Turian?" Wrex asked annoyed.

The switch for the door turned from red to green, "Yup," Garrus replied, the nodded at the commander, "after you commander."

Shepard pressed the button and entered the back warehouse where he was immediately confronted by two warehouse workers.

"Stop right there!" one of the workers challenged with his gun drawn, "Don't come any closer!"

"Warehouse workers," Garrus observed, "All the real guards must be dead."

Wrex suppressed a "Ha" in response.

"Stay back or we'll shoot!" the other worker challenged.

_Try it…I dare you…_

Shepard looked back at Wrex, and obviously sensing his thoughts, he said to the workers, "You guys should probably look for another place to work."

The workers looked at each other and lowered their weapons, and then the first one replied, "Yeah, yeah, right…Probably a good idea."

They then walked off with the other worker expressing his disdain for Fist.

"Would've been quicker to just kill them," Wrex told Shepard.

"Shooting people isn't always the answer," Garrus replied.

"I beg to differ."

"That's enough you two," Shepard cut in.

With that, the trio continued onto the Fist's office in the back of the warehouse. As they walked through the door, they were almost immediately beset upon by a pair of mounted turrets as well as the big man himself.

"Why do I have to do everything myself?" Fist asked, then challenged, "Time to die little soldiers!"

Seeing the turrets, Shepard simply ran to cover behind a well-placed wall and hacked one turret to attack the other, and after one was destroyed, he finished off the other with an explosive round from his sniper rifle.

It turned out that Fist was just as much a coward as any other thug since, after seeing his backup was gone, he tripped and immediately surrendered.

"Tell me where the quarian is," Shepard ordered as he walked up to Fist with his pistol trained on his legs, "and I won't have to shoot you in the kneecaps."

"She's not here. I don't know where she is." Seeing Shepard's eyes narrow, Fist covered his head with his arms, "That's the truth!"

Wrex had an idea, "He's no use to you now, Shepard, let me kill him."

"Wait! Wait! I don't know where the quarian is, but I know where you can find her."

_That was a huge contradiction,_ Wrex thought.

"The quarian isn't here; she said she would only deal with the Shadow Broker himself."

"Face to face?" Wrex asked, "Impossible! Even I was hired through an agent."

Shepard lowered his pistol and allowed Fist to stand up.

"Nobody meets the Shadow Broker," Fist continued, "Ever. Even I don't know his true identity, but she didn't know that. I told her I'd set the meeting up, but when she shows up, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her."

Evidently angry, Shepard pointed his pistol at Fist's head and threatened, "Tell me where that meeting is before I blow your lying head off!"

Eyes wide, Fist quickly replied, "Here in the wards, the back alley by the markets. She's supposed to meet them right now, you can make it if you hurry."

Realizing that was all the information Shepard needed, Wrex pulled out his shotgun and killed Fist with a single shot to the chest.

The surprise factor caused Shepard to take a step back.

"What are you doing?!" Garrus asked.

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him." Wrex replied, "I don't leave jobs half done."

"A lot of people died because of him," Shepard reminded them, "he had it coming. Now let's move; we have to save that quarian."

* * *

Author's Note: And thus began one of the most important moments of my life…The moment where the fates of my mother and father began to entwine and where the first seeds of their love were planted…though they didn't quite know it yet.

* * *

Tali was nervous, this was the first time she had ever been on the Citadel, and she had already lost friends due to the information she had found. She had been interrogated by C-Sec for what seemed like hours due to her being a quarian, and her technically being there as a stowaway that had been ordered off the station a few days ago didn't help the case at all. Saren was after her, she needed safety.

She had been waiting in the Citadel markets for some time, waiting for her meeting time with the Shadow Broker. She tried hard to stick to the crowds to blend in, but the people there tended to give her a wide berth since quarians were considered little more than thieves which, an assumption that was, in most cases, entirely untrue.

"Do you require work? ~Shhhhhht~ Floatilla clan?" a nearby volus merchant asked politely.

The volus are a very short, squat species that hail from the planet Irune in the Aethon Cluster. Due to the high-pressure greenhouse atmosphere of the planet and the ammonia-based ecology, they are forced to wear pressure suits and breathers when dealing with other species on different planets or stations. Since they are not physically adept, and tend not to be violent, the volus culture is more dominated by trade than anything else as well as financial consulting services.

"What?" Tali asked startled out of her thoughts by the sudden randomness of the question.

"I have ~Shhhhht~ some work that a quarian would be ~Shhhhht~ very helpful with."

"Um, sorry, I have…something I'm waiting for."

"Well, ~Shhhhht~ when that thing is over, my offer will ~Shhhhht~ still stand."

"Um, thank you."

It was actually fairly common for other species to hire quarians in technical fields due to their natural prowess in the area. Quarians are generally shorter and of slighter of build than humans, and like to the volus are restricted to highly advanced bio-suits, but for different reasons. Their bio-suits are also set up differently than the volus in the sense that their fogged face-shield-like visors obscure everything behind it but their bioluminescent eyes, whereas the volus anatomy forces theirs to have specific ports for their eyes and mouths, and while quarians do generally have a light just below their visors that blinks to show they are talking, volus have a small port that blinks where their mouth is assumed to be. Quarians have three thick fingers on both hands which include a thumb, an index finger, and a long finger that is similar to the middle finger of humans or asari, as well as three toes on each foot. Their lower legs are bowed backwards significantly, compared to asari or humans, but aside from their hands and legs, their general overall body shape is similar to that of humans.

Tali had to suppress her nervous habit of rubbing her hands together as she approached the entrance of the alley where she was going to meet the broker. Appearing as a nervous wreck in front of a person as powerful as him, or her, was not going to help her in the long run. So after allowing herself time to calm down, she took a breath, straightened up, and confidently entered the alleyway.

When she reached the top of a flight she was approached by a black turian with white facial tattoos vaguely reminiscent of a skull, "Did you bring it?"

"Where's the Shadow Broker?" she asked, "Where's Fist?"

The turian kept approaching and put up an arrogant clawed hand to touch her hood, "They'll be here. Where's the evidence?"

Tali swatted his hand away, "No way. Deal's off."

The turian backed away darkly and glanced at two salaraian thugs that were approaching from behind Tali. Noticing a human approaching form the opposite side of the alleyway, she tossed a concussive grenade at the two salarians, leapt behind some nearby crates, and drew her shotgun. The turian evidently didn't see the human arrive since he kept following her while she took down his shields, but once the human opened fire, his attention was drawn by the apparently heavily armed intruder.

_Intruders_, she thought to herself as she looked over the crate, _a human, a krogan, and a turian._

She looked back at the turian that had been approaching her before just to see him take an explosive round to the chest and fly back against the far wall. One salarian was being disintegrated by a biotic warp evidently generated by the krogan, while the other was being hammered by very precise shots of a pistol.

After the assassins were lying in a heap on the floor, or in the one salarian's case, a puddle, Tali heard the human say in a gentle voice, "You can come out now."

She peeked over the crate once again to see the trio of aliens looking in her direction, and seeing that they weren't trying to do her any harm, she holstered her shotgun and stepped out from behind the crate and slowly approached them.

She was annoyed that Fist had wasted her time, and didn't even try to keep it out of her voice, "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!"

"He's been dealt with, were you hurt at all in the fight?" the human asked.

"I know how to look after myself," she said, but quickly added, "not that I don't appreciate the help…Who are you?

"Commander Shepard, and this is Garrus Vakarian," he replied pointing at the turian, "and Wrex," pointing at the huge krogan."

"Urdnot Wrex," the krogan interrupted.

Shepard looked back at him, "Okay, Urdnot, got it..." he looked back at Tali, "I'm looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor, and I heard you just might have that evidence."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life," Tali replied, "But not here, we need to go somewhere safe."

"We could take her to the human embassy." Garrus informed the commander, "Your ambassador will want to see this anyway."

Shepard's omni-tool let out a few beeps and the commander raised his hand to his ear, "What d' we got?" he asked.

After a few seconds of listening, he simply replied, "Got it, we'll be there in about twenty minutes, Shepard out."

"Get the meeting?" Garrus asked.

"Yup, Kaidan said it's in an hour," he looked back at Tali, "Well, Miss, shall we go say 'hi' to the ambassador?"

"I'll follow you," she replied.

OOO

Ambassador Udina was sitting behind his computer in his office, idly reading the various updates about certain projects and news that he deemed relevant enough to be important.

"Udina got us a meeting with the council," Kaidan Alenko was speaking with Commander Shepard through his in-suit comms, "it's in an hour."

"Where is he?" Anderson asked.

"In the alley behind Chora's Den. Fist must've directed them there," he replied after cutting the connection and turning around.

"When'll he be here?"

"About twenty minutes."

"What the..!" Udina exclaimed, "dammit Shepard!"

"What?" Kaidan and Anderson asked together.

"Shepard was seen via Citadel Security cameras assaulting Chora's Den, having a firefight in a back alley as well as the clinic."

"The one in the clinic was necessary," Kaidan defended, "If Ashley was here right now, she would agree with me."

"I don't disagree with that one, but this kind of stuff makes humanity look bad."

"What would Ashley agree with?" Ashley just returned from taking a walk around the Presidium.

They all looked at her.

She looked between all of the awkwardly, "What did I miss?"

"Uh, nothing really," Kaidan answered, "Shepard just doing his job."

"Shepard came back?"

"Not yet Chief," Anderson replied, "but I want you two to head back up to the Normandy, I would prefer if it was just Udina and I talking with the commander when he gets back."

"Yes sir," both Kaidan and Ashley responded together before leaving.

Udina continued looking through his messages and came across a Chora's Den membership renewal notification. He glanced over at Anderson briefly and saw he was leaning on the edge of the balcony looking over the rest of the Presidium before he quickly opened the message, selected renew, and deleted the message.

"I see Shepard coming," Anderson informed Udina.

Udina stood up and followed his gaze to see Shepard walking in the direction of the embassy with a massive krogan and a turian in his wake. Udina could only shake his head and sigh.

OOO

Shepard couldn't help but feel a little thrill as he stepped into the embassy. They had managed to find the information they needed to bring Saren down. While it wasn't necessarily enough to get complete payback for Eden Prime, yet, it should be enough to get the Council to act.

Shepard and his three other comrades stepped into Udina's office.

"You're not making my life easy, Shepard." Udina said grimly, "Firefights in the wards…An all-out assault on Chora's Den…" Udina turned around to face the commander, "Do you know how many—" The ambassador noticed the quarian, "Who's this? A quarian?" he looked back at the commander, "What are you up to, Shepard?"

Shepard was enjoying this, though he was surprised Anderson hadn't told him about the quarian, "Making your day Ambassador…She has information linking Saren to the geth."

Hearing this information, the ambassador's mood lightened significantly and became more formal, "Really? Maybe you'd better start from the beginning, Miss…?"

"Tali," the quarian jumped in, "my name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the floatilla?

"I was on my Pilgrimage, my right of passage into adulthood."

Shepard had worked with quarians before, but he had never heard about a Pilgrimage, "Pilgrimage?" he asked.

Tali looked back at him, "It is a tradition among my people," she explained, "when we reach maturity, we leave the ships of our parents and people behind. Alone, we search the stars, only returning once we have discovered something of value to prove ourselves worthy of adulthood."

"What do you look for?"

"It could be resources, like food or fuel, or some type of useful technology. Or even knowledge that will make life easier on the floatilla. Through our Pilgrimage, we prove that we will contribute to the community rather than be a burden on our limited resources."

_Interesting_, Shepard thought, "Can you tell us what you found?"

"Yes," Tali looked back at Anderson and Udina, "During my travels, I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile, they have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious…I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit and disabled it to remove its memory core."

"Don't geth fry their memory cores when they die?" Anderson asked, "Some kind of defense mechanism?"

"How did you manage to preserve it?" Shepard asked

"My people created the geth," Tali clarified, "If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved."

_She's talented_, Shepard thought.

"Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio banks."

Tali played the audio log from her omni-tool: "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit…"

"That's Saren's voice," Anderson blurted, "This proves he was involved in the attack!"

"It brought him one step closer to the Conduit;" Shepard repeated, "what's that?"

"It must've had something to do with the beacon, maybe it's some kind of Prothean technology…like a weapon."

"There's more," Tali cut in, "Saren wasn't working alone."

She replayed the log: "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit…"

A female voice spoke up, "…and one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

"I don't recognize that other voice,"Udina stated, "The one talking about the Reapers."

"Reapers…" Shepard rubbed an itch on the back of his neck, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago," Tali answered, "The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction and then vanished…" Tali noticed the odd looks the others were giving her, "At least, that's what the geth believe."

"Sounds a little far-fetched," Udina pointed out.

Shepard realized something then, "The vision on Eden Prime – I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers."

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods," Tali explained, "the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the reapers back."

Udina sighed and shook his head, "The council is just going to love this."

"This _is_ a lot to handle," Shepard pointed out, "They might just ignore everything we tell them."

"Whatever they think," Anderson countered, "those audio files prove Saren's a traitor."

"The captain's right," Udina agreed, "We need to present this to the Council right away."

"What about her?" Wrex asked, "The quarian?"

"My name is Tali!" She replied indignantly.

"Whatever you say, quarian."

"You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you."

"What about your Pilgrimage?" Shepard asked.

"The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?"

"Are you sure?"

"Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy…My Pilgrimage can wait…"

One side of Shepard's mouth rose in a small smile, "I'll take all the help I can get…Welcome aboard."

Her tone and body language were barely masking her excitement as she walked over to stand next to the commander, "Thanks, you won't regret this."

"Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council." Udina informed them, "Take a few minutes to collect yourself, then meet us in the Tower."

After they walked away, Wrex spoke up, "Well, I'm going to go and turn in Fist's bounty…I'll be in C-Sec Academy if you need me."

"Wait!" Shepard said just before Wrex walked out the door.

Wrex stopped walking and turned to look at Shepard.

"So I take it you want to stick around?"

"It'll be a good change of scenery, wherever this thing goes, plus C-Sec is already mad at me, so it's better if I leave so things can cool down a little before one of us starts killing each other."

"Okay, well, see you at the Academy then."

Wrex gave a single nod and exited the office.

"What about you Vakarian?"

Garrus shrugged, "I already sent in my resignation to C-Sec, not like I have anywhere else to go…"

Shepard laughed a little, "Jumpin' the gun a little there weren't you?"

"Well, I've been thinking of resigning for a long time, you just gave me a good reason."

"Technically, we don't know what is going to come of this."

"Whatever comes of it, it has to be better that C-Sec."

"You will probably have to report to Captain Anderson, you know…if we are allowed to continue the case."

"Still better than C-Sec…" Garrus replied.

"Commander," Tali spoke up, "either way, you're stuck with us now…"

"Nothing wrong with that," the commander replied, "just making sure we're clear…you know…covering bases and all that…"

"Don't we have a meeting to get to?"

Shepard sighed, "Yeah…Let's get going."

OOO

"…And one step closer to the return of the Reapers…"

_He's shown the evidence, _Tali thought.

"You wanted proof," Udina stated, "there it is…"

"This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador," the Turian Councilor replied without emotion, "Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status, and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."

"I recognize the other voice," the Asari Councilor pointed out, "the one speaking to Saren…Matriarch Benezia."

"Who's she?" the commander asked.

"She is a powerful biotic, and has many followers…She will make a formidable ally for Saren."

"What are matriarchs?"

"They are asari who have entered the final stage of their lives. They are revered for their wisdom, experience, and power; they serve as guides and mentors to my people."

"Commander, what do you know about the Reapers?" the Salarian Councilor asked.

Captain Anderson responded, "Only what was extracted from the geth's memory core: they were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans and then vanished."

Tali couldn't help but feel a slight thrill since that was information that she gave them.

"The geth revere them as gods," Shepard continued, "and Saren is the prophet for their return."

"We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back," Anderson stated, "Saren's searching for it…that's why he attacked Eden Prime."

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" the Salarian Councilor asked.

"Does it matter?" the Commander asked, "Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers, that's bad enough."

"Listen to what you're saying," the Turian Councilor implored, "Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible…It has to be…Where did they go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we'd have found _something_…"

"The Protheans…" Shepard pointed out, "they were wiped out by them, there's your evidence...I tried to warn you about Saren, and you refused to face the truth…Don't make the same mistake again…"

"We have no definite proof that the Reapers were the cause of their fall," the Asari Councilor returned, "and the investigation into Saren is a completely separate matter: you proved he betrayed the Council, and we all agree he's using the geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"The Reapers are most likely just a myth, Commander," the Salarian Councilor dismissed, "A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose…A legend he's using to bend the geth to his will."

'They're machines, they use numbers to make descisions,' Tali wanted to blurt out, but she kept silent to avoid being thrown out for speaking out of turn.

"Fifty thousand years ago, the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization…" the commander pointed out again, "If Saren finds the Conduit, it _will_ happen again!"

"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life." the Turian Councilor stated, "He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre…The Council has stripped him of his position…"

"You think he knows that!?" Udina asked, "You know that is not enough! You know he's hiding out somewhere in the Traverse…Send your fleet in!"

"A fleet cannot track down one man, Ambassador," the Salarian Councilor replied.

"A Citadel fleet could secure the entire region and keep the geth from attacking any more of our colonies."

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems!" the Turian Councilor countered, "We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies!"

Through that whole conversation, Tali watched the Commander look between all the councilors and the ambassador, _What is he thinking, _she thought.

"Send me…" he said.

Everyone looked at him shocked by his sudden interjection.

"I can take Saren down."

The Asari Councilor paused for a moment, and then looked at the Turian Councilor, "The Commander's right…There is a way to stop Saren that doesn't require fleets or armies."

"No!" the Turian Ambassador replied, "It's too soon…Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres."

_Spectres _Tali looked back at the Commander, _He's a Spectre candidate? Wow…_

"I faced Saren on Eden Prime and exposed him for a traitor," Shepard countered, "I've proven myself."

The Councilors looked uncertainly between each other, and after a few nod to each other, submitted their authorization codes into their nearby terminals.

"Commander Shepard…Step forward…" the Asari Councilor ordered.

Shepard glanced over at Captain Anderson and received a sharp nod before complying.

Some of the people in the stands around the amphitheater stood up and walked up to the guard rails. A small swarm of floating cameras then flew up from behind and started recording the historic event.

Tali received a slight nudge from Garrus as all this was going on.

"What?" she asked.

"You seem excited."

"I am."

"You're bouncing."

Tali's bioluminescent eyes went wide and she quickly forced herself to stop, "Thanks."

"No problem," Garrus replied suppressing a turian grin.

After she seemed to believe everything was ready, the Asari Councilor started, "It is the decision of the Council, that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen," the Salarian Councilor continued, "Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle; those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol…The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

"Spectres bear a great burden," the Turian Councilor continued, "They are the protectors of galactic peace, both our first and our last line of defense…The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

"You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species."

"I am honored, Councilor," Shepard replied with a slight bow.

"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren," the Salarian Councilor informed him, "He is a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him."

"Any ideas on where to start?"

"We will forward any relevant data to Ambassador Udina," the Turian Councilor replied.

"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," the Asari Councilor finished.

OOO

"So…You're a big-shot Spectre now," Wrex stated as Shepard and his squad approached him in the C-Sec Academy.

"Indeed," he replied, "you still in?"

"I suppose so…Where are we headed?"

Shepard checked his omni-tool, "Anderson sent me a message to meet him up at the Normandy," he looked up just as the elevator arrived, "so that's where we're headed."

Wrex glanced at the Shepard's followers, and then back at the elevator, "Then we had better get going."

"Follow me."

With that, Shepard, Wrex, Garrus, and Tali all stepped onto the large elevator.

After the door closed, Garrus asked Shepard a question, "So Shepard, How does it feel to be the first human Spectre?"

"Not sure," he replied, "I'm still trying to decide."

"I know Tali was excited to see you get the title."

"Hey!" Tali responded indignantly.

Shepard smiled, "Technically, none of this would have occurred without her…so, thank you Tali."

Though Shepard couldn't see it, Tali was smiling under her visor.

"Plus, once the story gets out that two aliens were part of my squad should help to remove some of the animosity between our species."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Wrex responded, "they cut them out of the videos."

Shepard looked back at him, "What?"

"I'm kidding."

"Good, this deal with Saren is bigger than all of us."

After a few more seconds of waiting, the elevator finally reached the docking bay containing the Normandy. Udina and Captain Anderson were standing outside the dock to the ship.

"I've got big news for you, Shepard…Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy…The ship is yours now."

"She's quick and quiet, and you know the crew…Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander."

"What's going on here, sir, why are you stepping down?" Shepard asked.

"You needed your own ship. A Spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council." Anderson paused, "And it's time for me to step down."

"Sir, come clean with me, please, you owe me that much."

Anderson sighed, "I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard. They were considering me for the Spectres."

"What happened?"

Anderson was getting flustered, "I failed. I couldn't make the cut…It's not something I'm proud of. Anyway, you already know most of the story if Alliance Reports are anything to go on."

Shepard put up a finger and brought up his omni-tool, "Speaking of which," he produced an optical storage device, OSD, with his omni tool and gave it to Anderson, "give this to the alliance techs and tell them I found a really big hole that needs covering…and that I had to piggyback a salarian hacker to get in."

"Your side job? How did you know he was a salarian?"

"I tracked his EP address and sent him a tailored virus to take a picture via his camera the next time he logged on, I also did a minor data mine to get his current address…I'm boring you with the tech…It's all on the OSD."

"How long did it take you to do that?" Tali asked with a genuinely curious tone from where she was leaning on the dock's railing observing the ship.

Shepard looked back at her, "Pushing all the time together, probably a solid week."

"Wow."

Shepard shrugged and turned back to Anderson, "It passes the time."

"So _this_ is what you've been working on in your spare time?" Anderson asked, somewhat surprised, "I'll see that it gets to them." To the aliens standing behind Shepard, he said, "You guys can board, there's a few more things I want to talk to Shepard about."

After they were gone, Anderson continued, "Okay, Saren's gone, don't even try to find him, but we know he's after the Conduit. He's got geth scouring the Traverse, looking for clues."

From where he was standing patiently waiting for Shepard and Anderson to finish their banter, Udina spoke up, "We had reports of geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact; there have also been sightings around Noveria."

"Find out what Saren was after at those places, maybe you can find the Conduit before he does."

"Anything else?" Shepard asked.

"We have one more lead," Udina pointed out, "Matriarch Benezia, the other voice in that recording. She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved, but it might be a good idea to try and find her to see what she knows. Her name's Liara…Dr. Liara T'Soni…The reports say that she was exploring an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."

"Then I'll start there."

"It's your decision, Comander," Anderson reminded him, "you're a Spectre now; you don't answer to us."

"But your actions still reflect on humanity as a whole," Udina reminded him pointedly, "you make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up."

"I'll do what is necessary to stop Saren," Shepard returned.

"Not exactly the answer I was looking for, just remember: you were a human long before you were a Spectre." Udina looked at Captain Anderson and then back at Shepard, "I have a meeting to get to; Captain Anderson can answer any more questions you may have."

Shepard watched Udina leave and then looked back at Anderson, "I'm sorry sir…and thank you"

"Don't thank me so soon, remember: Joker still flies that thing."

* * *

**There…now that stuff is out of the way, a tad long, but it was all necessary, I believe, for this chapter; I guess I could have split it into two, but on the other hand, it's all going to be posted anyway…Okay, time for the bulk of the story with more dynamics…and most likely significantly shorter chapters if the video lengths are anything to go by (one hour **≈ **10 pages)…Oh, and btw, I've found a way to make the FRAPS videos smaller…setting to half size…a video of longer length is less than half the size of the shorter full-def one (57:03 min length 18.4 GB vs. 43:28 min length 71.8GB respectively) so yeah…better playtime/recording to space available/writing limits ratio… so…I can do a whole bunch of missions and mix and match where I insert them into the story…food for thought.**

**Anyway, from here on out, I will be writing the chapters as follows: major mission, 4 star clusters, major mission, 4 star clusters, major mission, 4 star clusters, major mission, 4 star clusters, major mission. If you count them, there 4 "major missions" in-game, but I have five…that is because I consider the Bring Down the Sky DLC a major mission…I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to include Pinnacle Station (A chance to blow off steam?). Leave a review with your thoughts about whether or not you think I should include a chapter there…among other thoughts you may have…I just realized that there are twelve, (well, 13 if you consider the Serpent Nebula) clusters, and my math adds up to 16…I looked at the wiki, so I'm basing it off that, if all else fails, I will stick to my main format and figure something out with the last segment…Oh, and one more thing, I consider the Citadel missions to be filler missions, I will do them as I feel they fit into the story…there's a few more things I want to mention, but I'll mention them in the next chapter…Please pardon my social awkwardness…and long-windedness. ;)**

**I tweaked the descriptions for races from the mass effect wiki. I had to guess on how a simple volus merchant would refer to an unknown quarian respectfully, so if anyone has a more concrete idea on what they would say, please leave a review.**

**If you haven't noticed…I am dreadful at explaining how faces look…so I would really appreciate help with detailed descriptions of all the relevant characters…minus Shepard…Please PM me if you have a description and I will integrate it, (If you are going to help, right now, I really need Anderson, and Shepard's squad as secondary…credit will be given)**

**One more quick note: On the wiki it says, "It is noted, however, that Reapers are believed to be capable of traveling nearly 30 light-years within a 24-hour period, and that this rate is roughly twice what Citadel starships are capable of traveling." Assuming the Normandy is…uh…galaxy of the art and can travel half the speed of them, I got curious on how many times the speed of light it could travel. Here's my calculation:**

**15ly/24hr=.625ly/hr **

**(1ly/1yr)*(1yr/8765.8hr)= 1.14E-4ly/hr **

**[the years cancel out leaving light-years per hour; E is a fill in for *10^whatever is after it…that's what it means on a graphing calculator though it's a subscript when typed]**

**.625/1.14E-4= 5478.6x the speed of light**

**That is not what it is for a mass relay jump, though; I'm not even going to try calculating that since according to the books they are essentially instantaneous…my original intention was to calculate how long they would be traveling through FTL so I could have realistic references throughout the story on how long downtime was going to take, but then I realized that they don't give the distances between star systems…anyway, food for thought, if you find any references on the internet, or you have an idea for an algorithm that seems correct for proportions in planetary clusters, please, send them my way.**

**I had most of this one done before I posted the previous chapter, so that's why this one is out so relatively soon…and I got a little excited…I don't know how long it will be before the next chapter gets out, finals are literally next week, but I will try to get it out in 2 weeks tops.**

**Please review…I don't know how I'm doing unless you review (if there's anything you think I should change, please bring it up…even if I have to start a new game and rehash over what I did…or at least search youtube…also tell me if there are any parts that don't flow very well, no matter what chapter it is in…check my math as well if you wish and tell me if I'm wrong) **

**;)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shepard walked up behind Joker.

"I heard what happened to Captain Anderson. Survives a hundred battles, and then gets taken down by backroom politics…Just watch your back, Commander. Things go bad on this mission…you're next on the chopping block," Joker started.

"Captain Anderson should be the one in charge. It's like I'm stealing the ship from him."

"Yeah, the captain got screwed, but it's not like you could've stopped it. Nobody's blaming you," Joker looked back at his superior, "everyone on this ship is behind you, Commander. One-hundred percent…Intercom's open, so if you've got anything to say to the crew, now's the time."

Shepard leaned down to activate the intercom, "This is Commander Shepard. We have our orders: Find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew, this mission isn't going to be easy…For too long our species has stood apart from the others. Now it's our time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy...Time to show them what humans are made of…Our enemy knows we're coming, and when we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers _will_ be waiting for us, but we'll be ready for them." Shepard straightened up, "Humanity needs to do this not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel Space…Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all…_we will stop him_."

"Well said Commander, Captain would be proud," Joker praised.

"He gave up everything so I could have this chance," the Commander turned and started walking away, "We can't fail."

"Yes sir…"

OOO

The Normandy Command deck contains the bridge in the bow, the airlock, the Combat Information Center, CIC, which contains the galaxy map and is overseen by Navigator Pressly, and the comm room towards the stern, which seconds as a debriefing room. The CIC of the Normandy is unusual in terms of an Alliance ship in the sense that the commanding officer's station is at the back of the room and raised above the other stations so the CO can look over his subordinates, whereas Alliance ships usually place commanding officers in the middle of the room, to facilitate communication. Since the Normandy is of both turian and human design, human engineers decided to try the turian layout in order to observe how well it functioned within the human command structure.

Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Wrex, and Tali were all waiting for the commander as he returned to the CIC. "So Skipper," Ashley started, "what now?"

Shepard rubbed the back of his neck, "Calling me Skipper now, Ash?"

"Calling me Ash now, Skipper?" she returned.

Shepard smiled and shook his head, "First," he looked at every member of his squad, "Allow me to formally welcome you to the Normandy SR1…We are going to be heading to the Artemis Tau cluster, following a lead given to us by Councilor Udina concerning Matriarch Benezia's daughter."

"Any specific system there?" Garrus asked, "It has four."

Shepard shook his head, "No, this is probably going to take a while so get comfortable. Once I tell Joker to set the course, it will take us about two hours to get there, plus the time it takes to travel between systems which, worse-case scenario, will take about 30 hours not counting the extra few hours to scan planets…Any questions?"

The squad members looked at each other briefly before Wrex spoke up, "Yeah…where do we stay?"

"I'll show you around, you can decide from there," he glanced over at Ash and Kaidan, "you two can go and find something else to do if you want."

"Understood commander," Kaidan responded, "I'll be in the mess."

"And I'll be in the cargo bay," Ashley continued.

They both gave a quick salute and left for their respective destinations.

As Wrex watched them leave, he asked, "We don't have to salute, do we?"

Shepard shook his head, "Don't worry about it, you're not Alliance."

OOO

Tali was excited, she was aboard one of the most advanced ships in Citadel space.

"And this is engineering," the Commander said.

He had already taken them through the mess hall and the cargo bay of the Normandy, the ladder of which was where Garrus decided to tune up the M35-Mako, a tank-like rover, after having a few ideas about calibrations, and Wrex decided to watch him to see how uncomfortable he could make him. They also saw Ashley cleaning the rifles next to the squad lockers, into which Shepard had them unload their relevant gear.

During all that, though, Tali was patiently waiting to see engineering, and now it was just her and the commander. Engineering housed the most important part of the ship, the drive core which contained a massive glob of Element Zero, eezo; it was, in terms of all other ships and proportions, massive. She could not wait to discover all there was to learn about it.

"That drive core is massive!" she said in awe.

"It is," the Commander confirmed, "though you'll have to talk to Engineer Adams over there if you want more information on it, I haven't had a chance to look at it myself yet."

She tore her eyes off the drive core and looked back at the commander, "I'll be sure to do that."

"Have fun…oh, and before I forget, I requisitioned a few new weapons for you and the rest of those guys out there, as well as some new armor…We're just waiting for the requisitions officer to get back."

_New armor?_ "Does this ship have a clean-room?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, that's right…quarians need those…Yeah…we have one, the med-bay, just talk to Dr. Chakwas…We also have dextro food, we had a turian Spectre on board before, though it's not sterilized, so you may want to talk to the doctor about that too."

"Thank you Commander."

Shepard's omni-tool beeped and he checked it, "Looks like the requisitions officer is back, so if there's nothing else you need on the Citadel..?" he looked back up at her, "then I'll radio Joker and tell him we're clear."

As he walked away telling Joker to set a course for the Artemis Tau cluster, Tali thought, _He seems like a good leader…taking care of his crew…kind of like a quarian, _Tali turned around to face the drive core again, _now, let's check out this drive core…_

_OOO_

_Finally he left_, was all Garrus could think after Wrex got bored with trying to intimidate him and went to get something to eat, _I was a C-Sec officer…I've put up with worse…_

The cargo bay was a relatively large open area in the Normandy that they used to store, well, cargo. It had a strip down the middle that was used for in-space salvage operations, the gravity could be actively adjusted, and four support pillars, two on either side of the middle strip. The armor lockers were on the left along the wall, looking out of the elevator, right next to a gun maintenance station that Ashley Williams was now working at. The Mako was along the wall to the right along with the requisitions officer's preferred area. There was one massive door that spanned the whole wall across from the elevator that also doubled as a ramp for loading and unloading things. Behind the elevator, there were two doors that lead to engineering.

"Hey, Garrus," it was the commander, "I got you some new armor and weapons, along with some mods."

Garrus looked up from his scans of the Mako, "Explosive rounds?"

"Yes."

"Good, C-Sec doesn't support using those since they tend to do too much property damage, but I've always wanted to try them."

"They cause a ton of heat, but they are powerful."

"Have to use them before they're gone too, there's groups out there trying to pass legislation against them."

Shepard looked up from his omni-tool, "Really?"

"Yeah, all the chemical and radioactive rounds too."

Shepard looked shocked, "Really?! First they take the harpoon rounds, now those?"

"Strangely enough, it's mostly batarians that are for kicking them out."

Shepard shrugged and looked back at his omni-tool, "Well, I can understand that I guess, they're usually on the wrong end of them anyhow…I guess we'll have to use them as much as we can before they're gone."

"I'll do my part."

"I'll make sure you can…I'll be in my cabin if you need me," Shepard started towards the elevator, "or around that general area."

OOO

The second deck of the Normandy was accessible from the both cargo bay, via the large elevator towards the rear of the ship, and from the CIC via the stairwells that wrapped around either side of the Normandy. The deck was comprised of the mess, the crew sleeper pods, the captain's private cabin, and the med-bay.

There were five terminals on the wall outside of the med-bay, right next to Shepard's armor locker, which the crew used for dispensing food. It was middle terminal that Kaidan was standing at trying to decide what degree of horror he willing to indulge in. It's not like military rations weren't completely bad, per say, but they didn't quite offer the level of…he wasn't sure of what word to use. The Alliance engineered the food to be packed with the nutrients they needed for their work along with being able to last for a long time in space. As a result, flavor suffered.

Kaidan sighed and selected the one he hoped would be the most bearable and sat down at the table. There was a monitor above the table that downloaded news and videos from the extranet almost every time they were within range of a comm buoy. Right now, there was some salarian video playing. Kaidan looked over to see Wrex sitting farther down the table just staring at his double ration.

"It's better than starving," Kaidan started.

Wrex looked back at him for a moment before looking back at his food, "I've seen more appetizing stuff sticking to the bottom of my boots after a particularly nasty raid."

"Better get used to it," Kaidan took a spoonful of his food and took a bite, "it's all we've got."

"You'd think since Shepard is a Spectre he could get some better stuff."

Kaidan took another bite and shook his head, "I'll talk to him."

Wrex looked back at his food finally took a bite, "I will give it this: It _does_ taste as bad as it looks."

"Heh, you could try the dextro stuff."

Wrex looked back at the food terminals as if considering Kaidan's suggestion, then looked back at his plate, "I'm not in the mood for cramps…I'll manage."

OOO

The Normandy started the search for Matriarch Benezia's daughter in the Sparta system of the Artemis Tau cluster. The first planet of interest it arrived at was the planet Edolus.

"Commander," it was Joker over the comms.

Shepard was standing on his raised platform overlooking the galaxy map in the CIC, "Find something Joker?"

"Yeah, a signal from the planet's surface…Looks like an automated distress beacon."

"Any hint the doctor is down there or anything else?"

"No, Commander."

"Forward me the information on the planet."

"You should have it now, Commander."

Shepard glanced through the information and found no mention of protheans or any information a prothean researcher would find interesting, "Move on for now…We'll come back to this later."

"As you wish, Commander."

The Normandy continued on to the rest of the planets in the system and sent the Alliance the coordinates to a gas giant, Ontamalca, that contained an abundance of hydrogen, and the coordinates of a small deposit of plutonium on the planet Alsages.

Shepard sighed, "Head to the Macedon system, Joker"

"Course set," Joker replied, "we'll be there in five to six hours."

While moving between the planets didn't take very long at FTL speeds, an hour or so to reach all the planets, it still took a few hours to get between systems.

"Got it, let's go get something to eat."

"I'll eat later, Commander."

"As you wish," the commander replied and headed down the stairs to the mess.

OOO

Ashley was sitting across from Doctor Chakwas in the mess, making small talk, "So, doctor, what've you been up to for the past few hours?"

The doctor took the last bite of her food, and then clasped her hands on the table in front of her, "Brushing up on turian, krogan, and quarian physiology…what about you?"

"I finished cleaning our weapons from Eden Prime and then decided to kill myself by eating."

"No need to worry about that," the doctor replied humorously, "I'd bring you back before it came that far…What do you think about our new crew members?"

"The aliens? I've got a few concerns, but nothing worth mentioning right now."

"If you have concerns, you should bring them up to the commander."

"I might later…I want to let him get settled in first."

"Hey you two. Playing nice?"

Ashley looked over to see the Commander take a seat next to her with a full tray of military rations, "Yeah…Just talking."

"Anything interesting?"

"Not really," she paused to watch him quickly eat a few bites of his food, "How can you stand that stuff?"

Shepard took another bite before responding, "I was born on ships. I grew up on this stuff. I learned that the faster you eat it, the less time you have to deal with the taste."

"I might have to try that."

"It's good advice," Doctor Chakwas assured her, "I deal with it by treating it like surgery…one bite at a time."

"What's one bite at a time?" Garrus asked as he sat down next to Doctor Chakwas.

"Alliance rations," the commander responded.

"I'm not sure how the Alliance rations taste, but I assure you, the turian versions don't taste good either."

"The sterilized nutrient paste doesn't taste bad," Tali said as she walked up and sat down next to Garrus, rather timidly, with a nutrient paste tube."

"Ah, good," the commander said, "I was wondering if the requisitions officer got that stuff."

"I might have to switch over to that," Garrus started.

"Unless she or the commander authorizes it, you won't be able to," Chakwas informed him."

"Yeah," the commander continued, "we synced it to her ID…and I'm CO of the ship."

"So you're telling me," Garrus responded, "that she gets to eat," he glanced back at Tali, and then back at the commander, "like a queen whereas I eat like a pawn?"

"Welcome back to the military, Garrus," the commander responded humorously.

Ashley coughed as a bite of food went down the wrong tube.

"You okay there Ash?" the commander asked as he patted her on the back."

She coughed a few more times before responding, "I'm fine, Commander…took a breath when I should have swallowed."

"It takes time to learn how to eat this stuff fast."

Tali was silently watching the whole exchange before she finally sighed and said, "Garrus, I'll give you one."

Garrus looked back at her, "No need, Tali, I was kidding."

Tali powered down her omni-tool, "Oh."

"Not saying that you may not be a princess among the quarians, though, just saying I can handle the military food."

"I'm no princess…"

"That's…" Garrus sighed, "Never mind."

There was an awkward silence between the people at the table before the Commander finally spoke up, "So how have the pawn and the princess been settling in?"

Chakwas put a hand to her face, "Shepard."

Shepard took the last bite of his food and put his hands up, "What? Fine…I won't call him 'pawn' if he can beat me at a game of poker."

"Us at a game of poker," Ashley clarified.

"You in Tali?"

"Sure," she responded, "but if the dextro team wins, you don't call either of us 'pawn' or 'princess'."

"And if the levo team wins," Shepard retorted, "we go all out…Deal?"

"Deal," Tali and Garrus responded together.

Shepard brought up his omni-tool, connected to the players and began distributing the omni-cards, "You in doc?"

"No," she replied as she stood up, "I've got to go and bring Jeff something to eat."

"Why doesn't he eat down here?"

"He prefers to stay up there."

"Okay then, see you later Doctor."

Shepard was good at poker, even among humans, but there was one thing he forgot to plan for, turians and quarians have almost natural poker faces. After a few minutes of raising and switching out cards, it was finally time to reveal. Ashley had two pair and Shepard had a flush.

"Beat that Vakarian," Shepard challenged.

"Not bad, not bad," he responded.

_Crap, _Ashley thought.

"You know what you get when you buy a whole bunch of stuff that you don't need?" Garrus turned his cards around, "A full house."

Ashley sat back in her chair.

"Still gotta' see what Tali has," Shepard informed Garrus, "Remember…team effort, we could get a tie."

Everyone looked at Tali, and she slowly turned her omni-cards around.

Shepard sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck, "Good hand, Tali, good hand…you won't hear 'pawn' or 'princess' from either of us anymore."

"Ha," Tali laughed.

"We've got a few more hours before we reach the next system, want to start another game."

"Want to lay down some credits Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"If you say so…"

"I'm in," Ashley replied.

"Me too," Tali continued.

"Commander," Joker interrupted over the comms, "we just reached a comm buoy, there's an urgent message from Alliance Command coming in. I'll patch it through."

"Shepard, this is Admiral Hackett from Alliance Command. We've got a situation here, and you are the only one who can handle it."

"What'd'ya need Admiral?" Shepard asked.

"There's an Alliance training ground where we test weapons and technology in live-fire simulations on Luna. One of the VIs we use to simulate enemy tactics in the drills is no longer responding to our override commands…its gone rogue."

"You're saying this computer's thinking on its own?"

"We're not stupid, Shepard. This is a virtual intelligence, not a true AI. It's not self-aware, and it can't access any external systems. We didn't do anything illegal here…Virtual intelligence support is critical to our military success. VIs process thousands of status reports and react in nanoseconds…No human can do that…We need you to fight your way through the training ground to the VI core and manually disable it."

"Don't worry, Admiral, I'll take that thing out next time I'm in the Sol system."

"I know Spectres answer to the Council, but you're still human. You're still part of the Alliance military, and right now we need you…The VI controls all the facility's weapons, drones, and automated defenses. You're the only one who can pull this off, Shepard. Good luck."

"Luna?" Tali asked.

"Earth's moon," Ashley responded.

"We'll take care of it after we find the doctor," Shepard clarified, "now back to our game…"

OOO

The Normandy was just reaching the planet Sharjila, and Commander Shepard was once again overlooking the galaxy map, "Joker, send me the data."

"Already did, Commander…there has to be a better way of doing this."

"I'll look into it…nothing in reference to protheans…note it and move on."

"Noted and moving onto Porolan, ETA ten minutes."

Shepard brought up his omni-tool and started fiddling with the settings of the galaxy map.

Eight minutes later, Joker came back up over the comms, "Commander, I'm picking up a strange signal in orbit around this planet."

Shepard powered down his omni-tool and leaned on the railing above the galaxy map, "Anything you can tell me about it?"

"Decoding signals is not my area of expertise, Commander."

Shepard smiled, "Have a little faith, man…Send it to the rest of the crew, see what they think."

"I have faith, Commander…just not in signals…Message sent…"

"Home in on that signal and try and see what it is."

"Already on it."

"Good job, Joker"

"Commander," it was Navigator Pressley from his station around the edge of the galaxy map, "I think I know what that signal is."

Shepard looked at him through the galaxy map, "Wha'd'ya got?"

"It looks like a signal from some sort of beacon. There's some distortion in the signal, which could mean the parts are getting worn and damaged…Comparing it to similar signals of modern make of all species…it looks asari…and ancient."

"Good catch Pressley."

"Coming up on the beacon Commander," Joker informed.

"Good," Shepard patched into the comms in engineering, "Adams. Get a salvage team together, we're checking out an old asari beacon."

"Understood Commander," Engineer Adams replied.

OOO

Tali was amazed at the efficiency of the humans in deconstructing and analyzing the beacon. As soon as Engineer Adams assembled his salvage team, they all put on enviro-suits and activated their mag boots. They then kicked any of the unshielded crew out of the cargo hold and depressurized the room.

Tali then watched as they checked to make sure there was nothing in the center strip of the cargo hold before deactivating the gravity in the strip and opening the massive door of the cargo hold. She then watched as the beacon slowly came into view and the Normandy lined up with, and slowly overcame it to allow the salvage team to slowly shepherd it into place in the cargo bay before slowly reactivating the gravity. While she didn't hear the beacon hit the ground, since sound doesn't travel in a vacuum, she still felt it through the floor.

Tali jumped as she felt a tap on her shoulder before noticing it was the commander in his full combat armor and helmet.

"Sorry," he apologized after he patched into her suit comm.

She looked back at him, "Oh, it's okay, I haven't been in a vacuum for a while."

Shepard nodded, "It's easy to forget how quiet it can be. Enjoying the show?"

Tali looked back at the salvage team as they closed the cargo door and started analyzing parts of the beacon, "They don't waste time…They're not going to pressurize the room yet, are they?"

"Not yet, we aren't going to risk an alien virus getting into the air supply."

She glanced back at the commander, and then back at the salvage team, "Good…Is that the only environmental suit you have?"

Shepard looked down at himself, "What, my body armor? Yeah…it's not that uncomfortable actually. I'm told that the internal comfort was designed by a quarian company…even circulates air."

Tali looked back at him, "It circulates air? I'm jealous; this suit has nothing of the sort."

"I think that other suit we got for you has it."

"I may have to try it on then."

Shepard's eyes were smiling, "It's your suit…your choice…" he looked at the salvage team, "You can join them, you know."

She looked back at the team as well, "I wasn't sure; I thought I would get in the way."

"They would find a spot for you, I'm sure your skills would come in handy."

"Commander!" it was Adams in a simple grey enviro-suit, "I found an OSD in one of the compartments."

Both Shepard and Tali approached him.

"Looks like it contains the writings of a Matriarch Dilinaga."

"Good find Adams," Shepard stated, "Gather what data you can on this thing and send it to the alliance." He glanced back at Tali, "is there anything you want to see on this?"

"Not this time."

He gave a slight nod and looked back at Adams, "When you're done, space it and sterilize this room."

"Understood, Commander," Adams replied.

Shepard walked back to the elevator with Tali and waited for the door to close and the interior to repressurize and sterilize before taking his helmet off, "It's going to be a while yet before you can get back into engineering, would you like to help me hack into alliance databases?"

"That's not a question one expects to hear casually..."

Shepard smiled obviously feeling the irony, "It's more fun than it sounds, I turned it into a game by adding an interface along with a few other things…I'll even push some credits your way for helping me."

She hoped she sounded optimistic, "I'll try it, but you don't have to pay me."

"I'd feel bad if you didn't get a cut for your part of the work, but trust me…it's fun."

OOO

In the Athens system, the Normandy found two more planets with gas deposits: an oxygen gas deposit on Proteus, and a helium-3 gas deposit on the planet Circe. They were now scanning a frozen planet, called Pharos, near the edge of the system with a large white circle in the southern hemisphere…a crater filled with ice.

Commander Shepard was waiting patiently on his perch above the galaxy map once again. He suppressed the urge to ask Joker if the scans found anything of interest on the planet below, he knew the pilot would keep him updated.

"Nothing on the planet itself, Commander…" it was Joker over the comm, "scanning its moon."

Shepard didn't respond as he watched their progress on the galaxy map.

"There seems to be some sort of base near the moon's equator…no energy signatures."

"Could the doctor be there?"

"There's a chance, but I doubt it."

"Might as well make sure. Ready a recon team. No more than four."

"You going down?"

Shepard thought for a moment, "No…no energy signatures implies no vehicles…there won't be any gunfire…just send a recon team…give them an hour"

"Understood…Message sent."

Shepard walked up behind Joker to see the moon getting larger and larger as the Normandy pulled in for a landing. The base itself was simple in design like it was never meant to last a long time. It was also missing a huge chunk out of one of its corners.

_Safe to say the asari is not there, _Shepard thought as he watched four small people walk out from under the Normandy and slowly into the base.

"Commander," it was the leader of the recon team, "nothing of real interest here."

"Already?" the commander asked.

"It's large and open in here…there is an insignia I don't recognize all over the place, though."

"Show me."

Shepard's omni-tool beeped and he opened the message, he didn't recognize the insignia either so he sent it out as a mass message to everyone on the Normandy.

A few seconds later, his omni-tool beeped again, "Commander," it was Garrus, "That's the insignia for the Magna Colony."

"Anything you can tell me about it?" Shepard asked.

"It was a colony that was destroyed during the Turian Unification War."

"You just knew that off the top of your head?"

"Required reading for the turian military…we have to know our history."

"Thanks Garrus…you can go back to calibrating that Mako's gun."

"It's as good as it's going to get until we actually use it…speaking of which…"

"We still have a long time before we find Saren…we'll use it soon…I promise"

"I'm holding you to that...Garrus out."

Shepard patched himself back into the ground team's comms, "If there's nothing else down there, you guys can come back."

"Understood, Commander," the leader responded, "Heading back now."

Shepard gave a single nod and started walking down to the mess, "Joker, chart a course for Knossos."

"Will do commander…ETA five hours."

Shepard shook his head and thought, _She had better be in that system...I guess I might as well learn about the people I'm working with._

OOO

They only stopped at one other planet before finding a suitable planet that the doctor would likely find interest in. Therum it was called, and the commander knew absolutely nothing about it.

He was sitting in the mess trying to decide who to take with him to find the doctor when his thoughts were interrupted by Joker over the comms, "Commander…we have geth signatures down on the planet."

"Thanks Joker,' he replied, "is there anything you can tell me about it?"

"I'll forward the information to your omni-tool."

"Got it, thanks…"

Shepard quickly glanced through the information, _A mining planet…that doesn't help at all…_

Since he knew nothing about the planet, he decided to use what he did know: one, there were geth, and Tali was the closest thing they had to a geth expert…so he would bring her, and two, they had absolutely no idea what was down there…he had to play it safe, Wrex was his other choice. He sent out the messages via omni-tool and headed over to his locker to suit up.

* * *

**One note I wanted to point out was that there are a few differences between the PC version of Mass Effect and the xbox version, but the most noticeable one is that the elevator on the Normandy moves about 75% faster on the PC version, which I am using.**

**Concerning Harpoon rounds…look on the wiki.**

**Normandy Descriptions tweaked from wiki**

**I apologize for how long this took, I was trying to figure out my life as well as doing a playthrough to get internal references for things that happened between missions, I took notes, but I think there are still more…so if there are any you found or would like to see, or would like cleaned up, leave a review or pm…I might go over this chapter again later.**


	4. Chapter 4: The Asari Scientist

Chapter 4: The Asari Scientist

Wrex was waiting patiently, patiently for a krogan, strapped to the gunner's seat of the M35-Mako while Shepard and Joker went through the list of pre-start checks. The quarian was strapped in at the engineering station, feeding the commander the relevant information as he came to a mark that concerned her area. He himself didn't need to do anything since his information was already accessible to the Commander.

"And that should be the last one, Commander," it was Joker over the Mako's comms, "prepare for launch."

The quarian looked at the commander from her station, "Launch commander?"

Shepard glanced back at her, "We can't afford to expose the Normandy to the potential for AA weapons…a drop is the safest way," he looked back out the window, "at least until we figure out teleporters…"

"Star Trek reference, Commander?" Ashley asked over the comms.

"Yeah, Ash, I enjoy the classics…wasn't too obscure…was it?"

"I doubt any of your current squad would understand."

Shepard paused, "Point taken," he looked back at the people in the Mako, "human vid…from long before humans actually reached space."

"Heh, Ash out."

"We ready to do this thing, Shepard?" Wrex asked starting to lose patience.

"Just waiting on Joker to find us a suitable drop point," Shepard responded

Almost on cue, the cargo bay door opened and Joker came back over the comms, "Launching in 5 seconds."

"Commander?" Tali asked.

He didn't respond.

"Commander?"

Still no response.

"3," Joker started.

"Commander!"

"2."

"You forgot to—"

"1."

Everyone was thrown back in their seats as the Mako was shot forward out of the cargo bay by mass effect fields similar to the mass accelerators in their weapons. One second later, Wrex felt himself rising out of his seat.

"Oh, wait," the commander finally spoke up, "forgot to turn on the inertial dampeners…my bad…"

Wrex immediately felt the effects of normal gravity as the inertial dampeners came on.

"Thrusters engaged," Joker informed them over the comms.

They felt a slight increase in gravity as the inertial dampeners tried to compensate for the slowing momentum.

"Touching down in 3…2…1…there…six point landing…beat that Commander…"

"Good job Joker," the commander responded, "I wouldn't want to put you to shame."

"I'm feeling pretty safe, Commander…transferring controls over to you…good luck."

Shepard turned around in his chair, "So, Tali, you were saying something?"

Wrex looked back at the quarian, her body language showed she was annoyed, "I was going to say you forgot to engage the inertial dampeners…but you planned it like that!"

Shepard faced forward again, "Maybe…"

With a huff and a shake of the head, Tali turned back to her station.

Shepard laughed, "I'm sorry, but don't worry, Tali, I probably won't do it again…I hate the feeling of free-fall…"

"What's wrong, quarian?" Wrex asked, "Too much fun all at once?"

"My name is Tali!"

"If you say so," he faced his console.

The Commander waited for Tali to simmer down before asking, "Everyone ready?"

After they all responded in affirmative, he began moving.

OOO

Riding in the Mako was actually fairly smooth. There were a few bumps when the inertial dampeners couldn't compensate fast enough, but it was an overall a fairly smooth ride…so long as you didn't look out the window since it had the tendency to cause symptoms of sea-sickness.

Joker popped in over the comm, "Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like off the damn charts."

"Wha'd'ya got?" he responded.

"It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few klicks away from the drop zone."

"Then, that's where we're heading…send us the nav-point."

"You should have it now."

"Keep us updated on any other anomalies."

"Will do…"

Therum up close, at least the area they were in, was a barren planet covered in nothing but lava and burnt stone. It somehow had the ability to have a breathable atmosphere, but only just. There were massive pipes along the path that they were going that the miners must have put in place to move liquid metals away for processing.

The Mako was idly jumping hills and skipping over low areas when Wrex spoke up, "I expected more action than this."

"Patience, Wrex," Shepard responded from his seat, "There were geth signatures detected from orbit…we'll run into them soon enough."

Wrex humphed, "I guess that explains why you brought the quarian."

"Tali," she corrected evidently in higher spirits.

"I didn't brief you? Sorry…I've had a lot on my mind," Shepard took a breath to gather his thoughts, "As you know, we are down here for Dr. Liara T'Soni. She's a prothean expert. I chose you because I had no idea what to expect, other than geth, and you have the most experience over anyone on dealing with unknown situations. I chose Tali because of the reason you said: the geth."

Wrex was silent for a moment, "Since Saren is allied with the geth, it seems like you're going to be spending a lot of time with our resident quarian."

Shepard was about to respond, but was cut off by the sound of a massive geth dropship flying overhead, "Looks like we've got your action Wrex."

The dropship looked very similar to a metallic-purple, oversized wasp without wings. Luckily for now, it only dropped off two geth armatures and flew away. The armatures themselves were essentially quadruped tanks with legs instead of tracks, or wheels, and a long, goose-like neck that worked perfectly for shooting over low cover. They were steel-gray in color.

Wrex immediately opened fire with both the Mako's mass accelerator cannon and its coaxial-mounted machine gun.

"There's a setting on there to zoom in, Wrex, use it," Shepard ordered as he jumped the Mako over one of the armature's energy pulses with the thrusters.

Wrex quickly found the switch and activated it. It took only two more shots using the cannon to take down the first armature as well as the second, though the second was also getting peppered by the machine gun.

Shepard cautiously approached where the armatures were dropped with the Mako, "There you have it…How are our shields, Tali?"

"They barely touched them, Commander…back at 100 percent," she responded.

"Good."

"That's it?" Wrex asked.

"For now…let's move on."

They were bouncing along for a while before Tali spoke up, "Scans are picking up a large concentration of geth signatures ahead, Commander."

Shepard pulled up a hill and was greeted by three geth heavy turrets as well as a closed gate. Wrex promptly took them all out as Shepard dodged their projectiles.

"So," Shepard started, "Any ideas on how to get in."

"We know there are a lot of geth on the other side…"Tali stated.

"Only a fool punches a nathak in the mouth," Wrex pointed out, "we should sneak around and pull its tail."

"You see a way around?" Shepard asked.

"There's a small pathway if you look to the right there."

Shepard leaned into the window, "Ah, there it is…nice catch"

He immediately turned the Mako down path and was once again fired upon by another heavy turret that was once again quickly taken out by some fancy use of the thrusters and Wrex's shooting.

"I think we're getting things figured out here, Wrex"

"I don't," Wrex replied, "I found a switch here that automatically compensates the turret for the Mako's movement."

"That's where that power went," Tali chimed in.

"How are the shields?" Shepard asked.

"They're fine."

"They're gonna' get hammered in this next area."

"I'm ready."

Shepard slowly pulled the Mako closer to the large clearing formed by the first gate and a second gate that continued on the main path.

Wrex immediately fired off a shot and knocked a red geth rocket trooper high into the air as Shepard pulled farther into the clearing. The remaining geth went down with a few well-placed shots of the Mako's cannon.

Shepard then pulled up to the gatehouse for the first door and stopped the Mako, "I guess I was wrong…good shooting, Wrex…Come on, guys, let's open that door."

"Why?" Tali asked as she pulled herself out of her seat, "We don't need to go that direction."

"It never hurts to have an escape plan," Wrex responded.

Shepard opened the hatch on the side of the Mako and jumped outside, "Good God this planet is hot…definitely not the best day to leave the helmet on the Normandy."

Tali and Wrex quickly followed him out.

"I'm fine," Tali stated.

"Thanks to that suit, you are," Shepard countered.

"Thanks, by the way."

"Don't mention it…Now this shouldn't take too long."

The squad entered the gatehouse and took down a rocket trooper that was inside. Shepard then quickly hacked a storage container and took all the items inside, then hacked the door control mechanism.

"One down…one to go," Shepard stated as they returned to the Mako.

They then repeated the actions of the previous gatehouse on the second one, though Shepard allowed Tali to hack the door to test her abilities.

"Damn," Shepard stated, "Beat me by .6 seconds."

"You were keeping track?" Tali asked.

"Yeah, gotta' see who's the better engineer," he replied humorously.

"So I take it I win?"

"This time…"

Wrex just looked between them, shook his head, then reentered the Mako.

After getting settled, they continued on the path.

"Hmm," Wrex started, "Nothing but rocks, dirt, and lava…Reminds me of home"

"That bad huh?" Shepard asked.

"Yup…So Tali…I see you prefer to use the shotgun."

"You used my name this time," she observed.

"Gotta' start somewhere…I've got a few tricks I could teach you about how to use that thing."

"I know well enough."

"I've got a few more centuries of experience."

"I'll think about it…maybe later…"

"Why not now?"

"We're on a mission."

"It's the perfect time."

"Not really…we've got a few armatures off in the distance."

"Fine, fine, quarian, we'll figure this out later."

Tali sighed.

They continued on the path and took out a few more armatures as well as a few rocket troopers. They then came to a massive tunnel with what looked like a much larger version of a geth armature, though it was white.

Shepard quickly reversed the wheels and backed up out of its sensor range, "Tali…what is that?"

"It's…it's a geth colossus."

"This is going to be one annoying thing to take down…unless," he looked back at Tali, "How are the shields, Tali?"

"95 percent," she looked back at him, "why?"

"I've got an idea…"

"Oh, no," she didn't like the look in his eye.

Shepard faced forward again and gunned the engine towards the colossus.

"Shepard, what are you doing?!"

Wrex was laughing having figured out the plan, "You've got a quad, Shepard!"

Tali saw the colossus getting closer and closer; she frantically started rerouting any power she could to the shields and inertial dampeners. After a few more seconds of driving, they all heard a big crunch as the Mako rammed the colossus. Then the sound of Wrex alternating between firing the cannon and the turret was heard. Every time the colossus got back up, they rammed it again, but even with the tactic of ramming and shooting, it still took a long time to take it down.

After it finally exploded, Shepard sat back and let out a breath, "How are the shields Tali?"

"90 percent…Commander."

Shepard laughed, sensing her agitation, "I knew you'd pull through…Garrus is going to have a heck of a time getting that dent out, though."

Shepard leaned back into the controls again, "Okay…Wrex, nice shooting, prepare for any resistance in the tunnel."

"Locked and loaded," he responded

The ride through the tunnel went without incident, but on exiting, they came upon a small group of geth rocket troopers which Wrex took out with a single shot of the cannon. They continued a short distance to another tunnel and were met with some resistance that was easily overcome with the main gun and cannon…as well as the Mako's wheels. Upon exiting the second tunnel, they were once again met with a small group of rocket troopers of which they blasted their way through and continued on a short distance until they reached a natural wall with a fissure down the middle that the Mako was far too large to pass through.

Shepard sighed, "Looks like we're on foot from here."

"Can't this thing jump over that?" Wrex asked.

"Doubtful," Tali answered, "the thrusters don't have the power make it."

"Didn't they help us land?"

"There's a secondary fuel tank that gets used for that," Shepard responded as he jumped out of the Mako and turned around, "it requires more thrust, so it uses different fuel. The primary tank uses hydrogen for its thrust; it mixes the hydrogen with stored oxygen and ignites it. That creates water and oxygen that gets collected using a form of artificial gravity. It then gets cleaned and recirculated."

"That's why when Shepard was using it before, he could only go so high for so long," Tali continued stepping out behind Wrex.

"I would've been fine with a shorter explanation," Wrex commented.

Shepard shrugged and pulled out his sniper rifle before stepping through the fissure.

* * *

Joker was sitting quietly in his seat after landing the Normandy out of the range of and AA-guns, waiting for the call for pickup. Kaidan was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, monitoring the condition of the ground team and the Mako.

"So Kaidan," Joker started, "anything interesting going on over there?"

"Oh," Kaidan responded sitting back in his chair and stretching, "Nothing much…Had a few massive collisions and the main gun overheating, but nothing else really serious it seems."

"At least they got past whatever that gunship dropped off…What're they doing now?"

"It looks like they're on foot…Shepard's shields took a hit, but they haven't gone completely down yet. The other two are fine."

"Shepard's taking the brunt of the attack? I thought that's what he brought the krogan for."

"Who knows with him?"

"What's going on up here?" it was Ashley Williams.

"Nothing much," Joker responded, "just waiting and monitoring progress."

"Hmm."

"Something on your mind?"

"I've got a few concerns, but I'll bring them up to the Commander."

"If you say so."

Ashley was silent for a moment, "What do you think of working with aliens?"

"I don't have anything against them…a turian's part of the reason I'm flying this ship."

Kaidan looked over at Joker, "Sounds like a story."

"Not much of one…Let's just say I proved myself."

Kaidan looked back at Ashley, "What are your thoughts about the aliens, Ash?"

"I'm," Ashley started, thinking about how to word it, "uncomfortable with how much access they have to the ship."

"How so?"

"This is an alliance ship and we have a quarian climbing through the engines along with a turian working on the ground vehicle…and a krogan mercenary."

"You don't trust them?"

Ashley shrugged, "Not yet."

"Give them some time, but it wouldn't hurt to bring this up to the Commander."

"Oh, crap," Joker cut in, "Drop ship…and they're on foot."

Kaidan twisted back to face his console, "Is there anything we can do for them?"

"No. It flew away, but scans indicate it dropped off something large."

"Vitals are still good…it hasn't killed them yet."

"Let's hope it doesn't."

* * *

Tali followed closely behind Shepard with her shotgun held at the ready. She saw Shepard signal to move to cover, there was a small group of geth ahead, and she rushed to comply. She ducked down and waited for Shepard to take the first shot.

_THUUME!_

There it was, she peeked up and opened fire on the geth troopers. They all seemed to be concentrating their fire on the Commander. She ducked down as one of the troopers shot a rocket at her, it missed, but the resulting explosion affected her shield. She peeked up again to see the geth that had shot the rocket flying in pieces through the air. She then saw Shepard jump out of cover and rush the remaining two geth and take them out with two blasts of his sniper rifle.

She glanced at her HUD inside of her helmet to check for any more enemy signatures, "Clear," she informed them.

"Hey, Shepard," Wrex called up to the commander, "aren't snipers for long range?"

"Not when I'm using them!" he called back over his shoulder as he signaled them to follow.

They continued up the path until they reached a clearing with a sniper perch standing on the far side, on a hill. Shepard looked over the clearing through his scope and, finding nothing, pulled the trigger.

_He must have some understanding of how their processes work, _Tali thought.

Shepard signaled for them to take care of the geth that came out on the lower level while he aimed for the geth in the perch.

Tali hacked the closest geth, a shock trooper, to attack the other, and looked up to see the sniper falling out of its perch.

The geth she hacked exploded as Wrex launched what he referred to as a carnage shot.

"Really, Wrex?" she called out.

"Got in my way!" he returned.

"There's still two more out there!" Shepard shouted as he blew the chest cavity out of a rocket trooper on the far slope.

Tali jumped up and overloaded the remaining geth, "One More!"

Shepard got low and walked out of cover to change his vantage point on the final one and hit it with his explosive rounds. He then walked out into the clearing and was fired upon by another geth that was previously out of viewing range. The problem was rectified with one more explosive round.

"All clear," Tali informed him.

Shepard stood up and switched to his pistol, "How's everyone doing?"

"Good," Tali responded.

"Can't we get any closer?" Wrex asked, "These shotguns aren't made for long range."

"Then switch to your sniper rifle," Shepard responded.

"When was the last time you saw a krogan fire a sniper rifle?"

"Good point…Let's move out, we're almost at the nav point."

The squad continued up the slope and past some cover that the geth most likely erected. Beyond that was an entrance to what appeared to be a mining facility. From where they were standing, they could see three massive tanks that were most likely used to keep the miles upon miles of ore lines pressurized.

After a short run, the squad came into the vicinity of the tanks and saw the entrance to the mine. The entrance was of standard design with a small ramp going up to the entrance and a circular pressure seal for a doorway. Unlike most entrances, though, it had a secondary level that looked to only be accessible from the tanks.

The squad slowly approached on high alert. They just walked past some crates when they heard a _thunk_ and saw something crawl up a wall. They were then flanked by the sound of a geth dropship flying low overhead. It only stayed long enough to drop off a geth armature and a bunch of smaller geth units before flying off again. Shepard and squad quickly rushed behind the nearby crates for cover

"Don't you wish we had the Mako now," Wrex asked as he used his biotics to throw one of the leaping geth, a new kind later referred to as geth stalkers, towards another leaper that was later referred to as a geth ghost.

"That's why I brought you," Shepard retorted, "Let's get to those crates on higher ground."

All three of them dashed to the crates, narrowly dodging an energy blast from the armature.

"Tali, hack that thing!" Shepard ordered above the gunfire.

"I can't, my omni-tool needs to recharge that one!"

Shepard was silent a moment, "Overload its shields!"

Tali leaned out of cover and attempted to do what was ordered, "Little effect!"

There was a secondary explosion as Wrex launched a carnage blast at it.

"That helped!" Tali shouted.

Tali saw as Shepard leaned out and attempted to sabotage the armature's weapons. She then leaned out to take a few shots at one of the geth stalkers, but was immediately knocked back by simultaneous shots from a geth sniper and a ghost to the chest.

She then felt the crushing grasp of a massive three fingered hand, and an order from the bearer, "Stay down, quarian."

Tali looked up to see Wrex launch another biotic strike at the sniper that shot her, and see Shepard glance back at her and turn his pistol to full-auto. The geth armature didn't last long after that, and the remaining get quickly followed suit. She then felt a soothing feeling as medi-gel entered her system and started taking care of any internal damage from the concussive force of the shots.

Shepard kneeled down next to her, "You okay, Tali?"

"Ugh, maybe a couple of bruises, but no suit ruptures, this armor _is_ a lot better than my other stuff."

"I buy the best," Shepard stood up and offered her his hand.

Tali holstered her shotgun and took it.

"Let's go before that dropship comes back."

OOO

Shepard was making a brisk but steady pace down the large circular tube that the miners had drilled into the crust of the planet. There were strips of lighting equidistant from each other down the tube that actually kept the area fairly well lit.

"Wrex, switch to your assault rifle," the commander ordered.

"Geth signatures ahead," Tali informed.

The commander continued on down the tube and was almost at a walkway at the exit of the tube when a geth popped around the corner and hit him full-on with their version of the carnage shot. Shepard staggered, but his personal shields absorbed the whole attack.

He had a brief thought of, _Whoa, _before Wrex used his biotics on the geth to lift it into the air and Tali blasted it off the walkway with her own carnage attack.

After that fiasco, though, a group of geth further down the walkway was alerted, and opened fire on the squad. Shepard killed his first one on the walkway below by shooting it through a gap between the cavern's natural wall and the turn in the walkway that the first geth came from. The remaining geth was taken down by Wrex as after he rushed up to the guard rail and hit it with a long burst from his assault rifle.

"You okay Shepard?" Tali asked as she followed him along the walkway and down a ramp.

"Shield took it all," he replied, "no damage…you guys take any fire?"

"Shields took it all, Shepard," Wrex replied.

They continued over the walkway until they came to a collapsed tunnel and an elevator.

"Who votes elevator?" Shepard asked to no one in particular.

They got a brief glance at white walls that told them they were in the right place.

"It looks like this cavern formed around the ruin…After it was built," Tali observed.

"Tells you how old this place is," Shepard responded.

They all stepped into the elevator and Shepard activated the control. With a shudder, the lift began a relatively quick descent deeper into the cavern. After a about thirty seconds of steady descent, the elevator opened to another walkway that lead to the left and closer to the ruin as well as to another elevator.

"Even in the middle of nowhere…we have more elevators than necessary," Shepard enthused.

"Good defense tactic," Wrex returned.

They were almost at the elevator when three assault drones popped out from below the walkway. Shepard took out the first with a few shots from his pistol, and overloaded the shields of the next, which Tali finished off with a blast from her shotgun. By the time the first two were down, Wrex had the third falling back down the way it came in in the form of a bullet ridden, smoking hunk of metal.

"Sterile white…Protheans sure build things homey," Wrex commented as his eye was drawn back to the wall.

"What do you think this thing was?" Shepard asked.

Wrex shrugged.

Without another word, the squad entered the second elevator and continued the descent to the bottom of the cavern. After a moment of descent, they heard and saw the two things that nobody truly wants to experience in an elevator…squealing and sparks.

_Great,_ Shepard thought, _live my whole life in space just to die in an elevator…underground…_

After a few more seconds of descent, the elevator ground to a halt.

"At least the emergency brakes still work," Shepard commented as he pulled up his omni-tool to hack the door open. Once open, the reason for the malfunction became apparent; the walkway was almost completely destroyed. Luckily for the squad, the elevator had conveniently stopped just above where it was supposed to, so they squad simply to jumped onto the remains of the walkway and slid down to a more stable patch. Then something none of them entirely expected happened…they heard a call for help.

"Uh…hello? Could somebody help me? Please?"

OOO

Liara T'Soni was analyzing her situation. One, she was safe from her pursuers, for now, two, she would probably die from being trapped by the Prothean security device if her pursuers didn't get to her first.

Liara sighed, as she watched the geth assault drones hopelessly shooting at the barrier curtain in front of her. Her pursuers had tried a few different ways of getting past the curtain, going so far as to use some explosives that destroyed the walkway, but were unsuccessful. At least for now, though, she had a show.

For a moment she thought that she saw some movement from the far elevator, a slight shaking in the supports, but didn't get her hopes up since very few people knew or cared that she was out here. She looked about herself; she was suspended by some sort of bubble in the middle of…whatever this was…an inlet in a wall. She shook her head again and looked back up at the assault drones, but they were gone…

_The geth must've called them off to try a different path, _she thought. That thought was dashed as she saw a smoking heap of metal fall from above and clatter on the walkway in front of her and explode.

_There's someone up there!_ she thought.

Her spirits fell a little when she heard a sharp squealing, and she hoped to the Goddess that whoever they were, survived.

She heard two smaller thunks, then one louder one, which caused her to call out, "Uh…hello? Could somebody help me? Please?"

She then saw a human with nearly black hair and a close-trimmed form of a modified version of mutton chops, a quarian in red and white armor, and a krogan…all brandishing weapons which, after seeing her, they holstered.

She called out to them, "Can you hear me out there? I am trapped! I need help!"

The human spoke, "Liara T'Soni, I presume."

Relief flooded through her system, they knew her name and they didn't look like they wanted to kill her, "Thank the Goddess! I did not think anyone would come looking for me. Listen: This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it…All right?" She hoped she didn't sound too demanding.

The human put up a hand, "First, your mother is working with Saren…Whose side are you on?"

Liara was shocked, "What? I am not on anybody's side! I may be Benezia's daughter, but I'm nothing like her! I have not spoken to her in years…Please…Just get me out of here."

"How did you end up in there?"

"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here…Can you believe it? Geth! Beyond the Veil! I activated the tower's defenses. I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out…When I turned it on, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here…Can you get me out now? Please?"

"Yeah, we'll find some way."

"There as a control in here that should deactivate this thing. You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain; that's the tricky part. The defenses cannot be shut down from the outside. I don't know how you'll get in…Be careful, though, there is a krogan with the geth. They have been trying different ways to get past the barrier."

"We'll find a way," the human repeated.

As they walked away, something occurred to Liara…she forgot to ask their names.

OOO

The asari was stressed and fearing for her life, so the commander didn't hold her pushiness against her.

As they walked away, Shepard analyzed the tower. It looked like it could possibly a long cylinder that rose up through the cavern with identical cutouts placed geometrically up and around it, he couldn't be entirely sure though since the cavern walls limited his view. Thinking back to the asari's predicament lead him to believe that the tower may have been some sort of Prothean prison complex. He also noticed that the asari's chamber seemed to be the only one that went all the way through…Maybe it was an entrance, and the thing she triggered was meant to catch convicts that made a break for it.

Shepard walked up to the railing of the walkway and noticed a few things. First, there were a few geth getting ready to open fire, and second, there was a mining laser.

_Hmm_, Shepard thought, _I've got an idea…but first._

The squad ran down a ramp and opened fire on the nearest geth. Shepard took out the first while on a flat part of the ramp as it folded back on itself. Tali hacked a shock trooper to attack a nearby rocket trooper, and after the rocket trooper exploded, Wrex finished off the shock trooper with a short burst from his assault rifle before it had a chance to override Tali's hack.

They all continued past the mining laser to finish securing the area. There was one more geth that Shepard took down just before it hit him with its sniper rifle.

"All clear, Commander," Tali informed.

Shepard holstered his pistol and set out to investigate the nearby storage area for something to control the mining laser. Finding nothing but a few weapon mods, he sighed and went up to the terminal next to the laser itself.

"Oh," he said, "Well…searching around over there was a waste of time…this thing uses a sequence…"

"Can you figure it out?" Tali asked.

Shepard nodded, "Shouldn't be too hard…four buttons, five button sequence, and a light that flashes red or green if the sequence is on the right track or wrong…shouldn't take more than a minute…"

Shepard entered the sequence as follows:

Right left –red light

Right right –red light

Right down –red light

Right up left –red light

Right up down right –red light

Right up down left –red light

Right up down down –red light

Right up down up right –red light

Right up down up up –red light

Right up down up left –green light

Without further warning, the mining laser blasted a hole in the direction it was facing and caused Shepard to take a step back in surprise. After it shut off, it revealed a secondary level just below the surface that held a passage just like the one that the asari was trapped in, though the mining laser must have overloaded the barrier curtain.

"I guess we're lucky the laser was pointing in the right direction," Wrex pointed out.

"Yeah," Shepard confirmed, "there's a console in there, let's go see what it does."

The squad walked up to the console which powered up and showed a holographic representation of the tower.

"This must be a lift of some sort," Tali observed.

"Looks like we're on the bottom level," Shepard looked a little closer at the image, "and Liara is on this level," he pressed the level and the lift began to rise.

"At least Protheans kept things simple," Wrex remarked.

Lift went up one level and gave them access to Liara's chamber as well as a flat area with a few consoles.

Liara craned her neck as much as she could to see Shepard's squad walk up behind her, "How…how did you get in here? " didn't think there was any way past the barrier."

"Superior firepower," Shepard responded, "we blasted through with the mining laser."

Liara looked forward again, "Of course. Yes. That makes sense. Please…get me out of here before more geth arrive. That button over there should shut down this containment field."

Shepard approached one of the nearby consoles and pressed the big button in the center. The Asari was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.

_Must've been the right button_, the sarcastic side of Shepard's mind thought.

Liara stayed down for a few seconds, probably letting the cramps ease.

"Any idea how we get out of this place?" Tali asked as the asari stood up.

"There is an elevator back in the center of the tower. At least, I think it's an elevator. It should take us out of here," she brushed past them, "come on."

They all walked onto the center platform and Liara spoke up again, "I—I still cannot believe all this. Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?"

"Saren's looking for the Conduit." Tali responded, "You're a Prothean expert. He probably wants you to help him find it."

"The Conduit? But I don't know—"She was interrupted by a shudder through the tower.

"What the hell was that?" Wrex asked.

"These ruins aren't stable. That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event." She went over to one of the nearby consoles and pressed a few buttons, "We have to hurry, the whole place is caving in."

Shepard glanced back at his squad then called the Normandy over the comms, "Joker! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal…On the double, mister!"

"Aye, aye, Commander. Secure and aweigh," Joker responded, "ETA eight minutes."

"He needs to move faster," Tali said anxiously.

"He's going as fast as he can," Shepard responded.

"Well, if I die down here, I'll kill him." Wrex stated.

The elevator quickly rose and, after a few moments of rising, slowed to a stop in what seemed to be the top of the tower and extended its flooring to match the rest of the level.

As if on cue a krogan and a squad of geth entered the room right as the lift stopped all movement, "Surrender, or don't…That would be more fun."

Shepard couldn't believe the stupidity of this guy, "In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart."

"Exhilarating…isn't it?" the krogan took a few steps forward, "Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us…Hand the doctor over."

Shepard had a brief flash to a similar line from one of the vids from _Star Trek_.

"Whatever it is you want," Liara replied, "you're not getting it from me."

A few stones fell from the ceiling, "Is this really the time?" Shepard asked.

"The atmosphere is perfect for a life and death struggle," the krogan replied and looked back at the geth behind him, "Kill them. Spare the asari if you can. If not, it doesn't matter."

The krogan and the geth spread out in attempt to flank the small party. Shepard pulled out his pistol, overloaded the shields of the nearest geth, and finished it off with a few shots to its "flashlight' head.

"Liara, stay with Tali. Wrex focus on that krogan," he ordered as he dashed to the edge opposite the exit.

Wrex attempted to throw the krogan with his biotics, but failed due to the krogan's shields. He settled on whittling them down with his assault rifle, whereas Tali hacked the nearest geth to help. The krogan charged Wrex and hit him hard enough to take down his shields. Wrex then activated a secondary shield that made him nearly invulnerable to damage and followed up the charge by bashing the other krogan in the face with the butt of his assault rifle, effectively ruining the gun. Quickly switching to his shotgun and, since the other krogan's shields were down, he quickly threw him with biotics, shot him with the shotgun to knock him away, and disintegrated him with his warp ability.

Meanwhile, Tali, with Liara in tow, had followed Shepard and helped him take down another geth. The hacked geth overrode the previous hack and began firing on them as well. Both Tali and Shepard overloaded the geth , then rushed to help Wrex, but didn't risk firing due to Wrex being in too close of a proximity to the other krogan.

After Wrex finished the disintegration, the group dashed for the entrance and took out one final geth sniper together. They stopped at the exit of the tower to get their bearings, then made a mad dash for the cavern's entrance. Rock and dirt was falling everywhere, and Shepard got hit by more than a few larger chunks. He looked back to see how the others were doing and waved them past him.

"Move! Move! Move!"

They were at the cylindrical tube when the whole cavern collapsed behind them. They made it out the entrance in a puff of dust to see the Normandy already waiting.

"That was a little less than eight minutes, Joker," the Commander remarked between puffs of air.

"Set the bar low, you can only do better," Joker shot back, "Now get on board so we can go get the Mako."

* * *

**Before you ask…Yes…my Shepard is a trekkie…he lived on a space ship and had little else to do…they had over a century to make more star trek movies/series… he had enough to fill his childhood…**

**I opened a poll about whether or not to include Pinnacle Station on my profile…seems like the best way to get feedback.**

**I'm not big on chemistry, but I think that's how hydrogen works…tell me if you don't think that setup would work...with electrolysis.**

**If anyone could look at the cover and tell me what the name of that style of facial hair is, I would be grateful…I kinda' guessed**

**How Joker got to fly the Normandy was a reference to the comic "He Who Laughs Best." Do a search if you want to read it…it's free…there's a link to it in a bioware forum. **

**Sorry this took so long…I've been lacking ambition as well as being distracted…I also had to rehash over one area so it fit what was said better…I will try to get the next one out sooner…I have a small stockpile of videos.**

**If there's anything that you feel needs changing/expanding/clarification…pm/review. ;)**

* * *

**(Added 6/27/2013)...I recently moderated out a rather...uncivil...anonymous review...no one wants to see that...I only ask that people keep things respectful and civil; If you have criticism, be constructive and I will try to fix it...I value your opinion, but if you are going to use that type of language/speech...I am not above removing it...THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE...please...if you wouldn't say it to your college professor (or equivalent) face to face...you don't need to say it here...Thank You**

**To those that already reviewed...Thank You **

** Perivel I modified that chapter so it doesn't sound so final...I hope that helps. ;)**


	5. Chapter 5: Segment 1: The Team

**I just paged through this story's chapters on this site…the scroll bars are really small compared to most other stories…Sorry…**

Chapter 5: Segment 1: The Team

"Too close, Commander." Joker started over the ship's internal comms as the team assembled in the debriefing room, "Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulphur. The Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes…They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull…Just for future reference."

The debriefing room was a circular room behind the CO's station that contained eight chairs around the perimeter that were separated into two groups of four by the door on one side and three terminals on the other.

Shepard just shook his head and suppressed a witty retort. When they went to pick up the Mako, Joker was forced to position the Normandy over a molten pond that was rising faster and faster. There was no damage to the ship, but it was very nerve-wracking for the Flight Lieutenant.

"We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked.

Shepard shrugged, "It's a coping mechanism…You'll get used to it."

"I see…It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander, but I am grateful to you…You saved my life back there. And not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me or dragged me off to Saren."

"What did he want from you?" Kaidan asked, "Do you know something about the Conduit?"

Liara looked at him, "I only know that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction…Which is my real area of expertise. I have spent the past fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them."

One of Shepard's eyebrows went up, "How old are you, exactly?"

"I hate to admit it, but I am only 106."

"Damn," Ashley cut in surprised, "I hope I look that good when I'm your age."

"A century may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours, but among asari, I am barely considered more than a child…That is why my research has not received the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories."

"Did your research turn up anything interesting?" the Commander asked.

"What is interesting is what I did not turn up…There is remarkably little archaeological evidence of the Protheans…even less that might explain why they disappeared. It is almost as if someone did not want the mystery solved…It's like someone came along after the Protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of clues., but here is the interesting part…according to my findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began long before them."

"If the Protheans weren't the first, then who was?"

Liara's head lowered nearly imperceptibly, "I don't know. There is barely any evidence on the Protheans, and even less on those that came before them…I cannot prove my theory, but I know I am right…The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down…only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their empire spanned the entire galaxy, yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of those who came before. Their greatest achievements – the mass relays and the Citadel – are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like all the other civilizations throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared…I have dedicated my life to figuring out why."

Shepard was silent for a moment, letting the pieces fall into place, "They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines…The Reapers."

Liara was shocked, "The—the Reapers? But I have never heard of—How do you know this? What evidence do you have?"

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a vision into my brain. I'm still trying to sort out what it all means."

Liara lowered her head in thought, "Visions? Yes," she looked back up at the Commander, "that makes sense. The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is extremely rare…It's no wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance to acquire a working beacon—even a badly damaged one—is worth almost any risk. But the beacons were only programmed to interact with Prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would have been confused, unclear."

She was silent for a moment before continuing with a bit of awe in her voice, "I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong-willed, Commander."

"Okay, this isn't helping us find Saren, or the Conduit," Ashley pointed out with an edge of hostility.

Liara shook her head to pull her mind out of her train of thought, "Of course, you are right. I am sorry…My scientific curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately, I do not have any information that could help you find the Conduit…Or Saren."

The Commander was silent for a moment, contemplating what to do with the Asari, "I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture, but I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along."

"Thank you Commander. Saren might come after me again. I cannot think of anywhere safer than on your ship," Liara stood up and walked towards the Commander, "and my knowledge of the Protheans might be useful later on."

"And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts," Wrex pointed out.

Shepard glanced over at Wrex, he was a little surprised that he would point out something like that; Shepard gave a single nod and held out his hand, "Good to have you on the team, Liara."

She took his hand and shook it, shaking hands, it seems, was nearly the universal sign of agreement, "Thank you, Commander. I am gratef—" Shepard's grip tightened a little bit in an unconscious gesture to keep her from falling; Liara's free hand went up to her head, "whoa, I am afraid I am feeling a bit light-headed."

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept?" Kaidan asked, "Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you."

She let go of Shepard's hand, "It is probably just mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock of discovering the Prothean's true fate. I need some time to process all this." Seeing the commanders look, she continued," Still, it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional. It will give me a chance to think things over. Are we finished here Commander?"

Shepard looked his crew, "Are there any questions?"

There was a brief silence before Garrus raised his hand, "Uh…Yeah…Where's the bathroom on this thing?"

Shepard glanced back at the human members of his squad and saw Kaidan shrug, then looked back at Garrus, "That was a minor design oversight when they built this thing…it wasn't meant for long-term deep-space missions…It's easier to deal with if you don't think about it…But if you really have to go we could always crack the airlock a little and—"

"Shepard!" Ashley cut in, "Please, stop that train of thought…right now."

"Okay," Shepard laughed, "I put in a request for the next retrofit, but it's going to be a while before they can do anything…any more questions?"

Hearing none, the Commander gave one final order, "Dr. Chakwas has informed me that she is ready to do a baseline evaluation of the non-human crew, Liara you go first, then the ground team starting with Tali, you already switched back to your old suit, but it wouldn't hurt to have the doctor evaluate any damage you may have recieved groundside. Wrex, if I hear you skipped out on your evaluation I will cut your food ration down to one third."

"I might have to skip, then," Wrex responded humorously.

"Oh, wait, I meant to say I would triple your ration."

"Bah, cruel aliens," he muttered.

"Garrus, I assume you will need help with the Mako, Kaidan, hop to it."

"What did you do down there?" Garrus asked.

Shepard gave him a sly smile, "You'll see…Dismissed"

As they all got up to leave, Joker came back over the comms, "Mission reports are filed, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?"

"Patch them through, Joker," he ordered.

"Setting up the link now, Commander."

Shepard walked up to the three terminals and opened up his end of the link. Immediately, holograms of the three councilors popped up.

"We've received your report, Commander," the Asari Councilor started, "I understand Dr. T'Soni is on the Normandy."

"I assume you're taking the necessary security precautions?" the Turian Councilor asked.

"She's on our side, Councilor," Shepard defended, "The geth were trying to kill her."

"Benezia would never allow Saren to kill her daughter," the Asari Councilor established.

"Maybe she doesn't know," the Salarian Councilor pointed out.

"Or maybe we don't know her," the Turian Councilor interjected, "We never expected she could become a traitor."

"At least the mission was a success."

"Apart from the utter destruction of a major Prothean ruin," the Turian Councilor crossed his arms, "Was that really necessary, Shepard?"

"The geth were crawling all over those ruins," Shepard responded, "We were lucky to make it out alive."

"Of course, Commander," the Salarian Councilor responded understandingly, "The mission must always take priority."

"Good luck, Commander," the Asari Councilor finished, "remember: we're all counting on you."

With that, the holograms of all three councilors disappeared, and Shepard called out to Joker, "Joker, set a course back to that planet we found the strange signal…might as well take care of it before we head back to the Citadel."

"But I have to use the bathroom," Joker responded.

Shepard nodded, "We all have to, Joker…Someone just _had_ to ask the forbidden question."

"It was going to happen sooner or later…I guess it's best we got it out of the way…Course set…we should be there in a few hours…want me to add the Citadel to that course too?"

"Do it."

"Course set…and we're moving."

Shepard shook his head…This was going to be a long few hours.

OOO

Ashley was waiting outside the debriefing room for Shepard, she wanted to bring forward her concerns, and she decided now was the best time since the…non-humans…were out of earshot.

As the door opened, she started, "Hey, Commander…You have a minute to talk?"

Shepard looked up from his omni-tool, "Hmm? Oh, hey Ash…I keep an open-door policy. If you have any concerns, lay them on me."

Ashley took a breath, "All right…I know things are different aboard the Normandy, but—I'm concerned about the aliens…Vakarian and Wrex…With all due respect, Commander, should they have full access to the ship?"

"Walk with me…I'm heading to my cabin to fill out a few personal reports…"

"Aye sir."

They both walked down to Shepard's cabin and took a seat at his table.

"Okay, Chief," the Commander started, "don't mince words. What's your concern?"

"Commander, this is the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy…I don't think we should give them free reign to poke around the vital systems…engines, sensors, weapons."

Shepard cocked his head, "You don't trust the Alliance's allies?"

"I'm not sure I'd call the Council races allies…We—humanity, I mean—have to learn to rely on ourselves."

"How do you get from 'relying on ourselves' to 'mistreating our allies'?" Shepard's voice rose a little.

Quickly trying to diffuse the situation, Ashley clarified, "I don't mean we should mistreat them, Commander. I just think we should be prepared to go it without them. As noble as the Council members seem now, if their backs are against the wall, they'll abandon us."

Shepard shrugged and leaned back, "I don't see that as inevitable."

"Look: If you're fighting a bear, and the only way for you to survive is to sic your dog on it and run, you'll do it. As much as you love your dog…it isn't human."

One of Shepard's eyebrows rose, "You really believe that?"

"It's not racism…Not really…Members of their species will always be more important to them than humans are."

"I beg to differ, I've heard a few rather interesting stories out there. I find that while that idea is certainly valid to some extent, it is by no means the first choice…People prioritize what is important. If they consider their dog to be expendable, sure, they will have it sic the bear, but if not, they will search for another way…from what I hear, usually yelling works…these seem like deeply-held beliefs, though, Williams. What made you think this way?"

"My family's defended the Alliance since it was founded. My father, grandfather, great-grandmother—they all picked up a rifle and swore the Oath of Service… I guess we just tend to think of Earth's interests as our own…"

"All right. I guess that makes sense." Shepard leaned on the table again and nodded knowingly, "I can see where your concerns are coming from, Williams. But this is a multilateral mission. You're going to have to work with aliens, like it or not."

Ashley returned his nod, "It won't be a problem, Commander. You say 'jump,' I say 'how high.' You tell me to kiss a turian, I'll ask which cheek."

Shepard smiled, "I don't think kissing turians will be necessary."

"You never know, Commander."

"Well if you really want to do it, I could call Garrus up here."

"You _did_ say kissing turians wouldn't be necessary."

"I'll try and keep that in mind…Since you're here, any opinions on the last mission?"

Ashley sat back a little in her chair, "I'm not sure I buy Dr. T'Soni's story. About her mom not talking…They're family, right?"

"Not everyone has a happy family life."

"I know. But I'm not going to bet she's on our side just because Benezia didn't hug her enough…I'll keep an eye on her…Too bad the ruins got destroyed, though. I mean, they lasted thousands of years…That's impressive."

"The many wonders of engineering," Shepard sat back and brought up his omni-tool, "That's about all I have…you have anything else?"

"No sir," Ashley stood up.

"Then, we'll talk later Williams…think about what I said."

"I will sir," she replied as she saluted and walked out.

While she didn't entirely agree with him, she didn't entirely disagree. She knew that she probably came across as racist, but she also truly believed that the Commander understood her reasoning. Maybe she over-generalized—she may have to talk about it more with him later—this was definitely going into her personal logs.

Ashley looked up to see that she was standing awkwardly outside the elevator while Tali was coming around the corner from the med-bay.

_What the hell, _she thought, _I'll try talking to them._

"Hey…Tali, right?"

The quarian looked up at her from her omni-tool, "Hi."

"What are you up to?"

"Getting Wrex, then I'm going to talk to Engineer Adams a little more about the Normandy engines."

Ashley suppressed a shudder, but tried to open her mind a bit more as she finally stepped into the elevator with Tali and pressed the down button, "Good luck with that."

"Chakwas gave me a strong sedative just in case he doesn't want to go."

Ashley laughed, "I think he'll go…Shepard threatened him with food."

OOO

As Ashley left, Shepard checked his messages on his omni-tool and saw a message that Chakwas sent him about Tali's examination being done and an overview of her condition.

_Perfect, _he thought, _maybe if Ash interacts with them a bit more, she'll question her beliefs._

He opened the message Chakwas sent about Liara and was glad to see that she was now eating in the storage room behind the med-bay…He would talk to her later to see how she was doing. The next message was from Alliance Command…the information he requested about Ashley and Kaidan.

_Logs first then read up on crew_.

Shepard powered down his omni-tool and walked over to the terminal near his bed to begin his encrypted recordings that he made after nearly every mission. First, he started by stating the date and time, galactic standard, then uploading the video recordings he made throughout the day. He then moved on to recording any relevant thoughts he had about the videos. The recordings varied greatly in length and depth, usually depending on how much went on and how ambitious he was that day, but today he was feeling fairly ambitious and spent a good hour on it. He didn't close it and file it away when he was done, though…his day wasn't done.

OOO

Garrus was sitting on top of the Mako, trying to get the massive dent out of the front that came from, by what Wrex said, ramming something called a geth colossus…at least it gave him something to do.

"Okay, Kaidan, pull," he ordered.

Kaidan pulled as hard as his biotic ability would allow and gained about a half of an inch on the dent.

"Applying heat," Garrus went over the edges of the dent again with a hydrogen torch, "okay, go."

Kaidan pulled again and gained about a quarter of an inch. He then plopped down on one of the crates and started massaging his temples, "Can we take a little break? I'm having a flare up here."

Garrus looked up from what he was heating, "You okay?"

"Just a migraine…L2…just have to wait for the meds to kick in."

"L2…ah…take your time."

At that moment, Ashley walked up, "You alright there LT?"

"I'm fine," Kaidan responded.

Ashley examined the dent, "There _has_ to be a better way to get that thing out…"

"I'm sure there is," Garrus responded, "this is just plan A."

"You should get an engineer's perspective like Adams or Shepard."

"Or Tali," Garrus responded seeing the quarian waving a needle in front of Wrex, "Hey, Tali! Come here once!"

Tali glanced back at them, then looked back at Wrex and shrugged. The krogan shook his head and walked into the elevator. She then started walking towards the group by the Mako.

With her hands clasped behind her back and a slight bounce, she asked," What can I do for you?"

"You have any ideas on how to get this dent out?" Kaidan asked.

Tali examined the dent, "Did you try the automated repair system?"

"That works best with small dents," Garrus responded, "like from bullets or rockets…This is a little more."

"Hmm, if I'm correct, this thing uses omni-gel to push out those dents. If you use the repair system, it would fill the cell between the dent and the…driving area…and, since it is difficult to compress a liquid, the dent should pop out…if you keep using heat around the edges, it should minimize any unnecessary pressure on the pump itself."

"The cell might've been punctured," Kaidan pointed out.

"The automated repair system will deal with that, it may use a bit more omni-gel, but apparently we have a stockpile somewhere around here."

Kaidan sighed, "I guess I'll activate it…Garrus keep heating around that dent." Kaidan stepped into the Mako, and after a few seconds, they heard the loud screech of protesting metal, then a painful pop.

Kaidan stepped out again, "Repairs complete…that's probably why Shepard wanted me to help…Garrus doesn't know how to use the system…"

"I still don't, Garrus responded."

Kaidan laughed, then winced, "Come down here then and I'll show you."

"That all?" Tali asked.

"Yeah…where's Ash?"

"Over here!" they heard her call from the weapon's bench, "Just repairing Wrex's assault rifle!"

OOO

"Just get something to eat, and I assure you you'll be fine," Dr. Chakwas said, "come back when you're feeling better for your baseline evaluation."

Liara slid off the med-bay bed and stood up, "I will, Doctor…do you know of any quiet places where I can go over my notes?"

"The storage room tends to be fairly quiet, but you might want to get acquainted with the rest of the crew…if I know the Commander, he'll want to talk to you."

"I will try."

Chakwas powered up her omni tool and sent out a few quick messages, "Doctor's orders."

With a nod, Liara headed for the mess. There were only a few people sitting at the table when she arrived. She wasn't sure if she was just being paranoid, but the wary glances they gave her pushed her to decide to try mingling with the crew later…after she had a chance to prove she was different than her mother.

She quickly selected her food and rushed back into the med-bay, nearly tripping over the quarian that helped the Commander get her off Therum.

"Liara?" the Quarian asked.

Dr. Chakwas looked up from the console she was typing in, "Back already?"

"Will it be okay if I eat this back there?"

The doctor gave her a small smile, "This time…Just don't spill anything."

Liara gave the quarian an apologetic smile, then walked into the storage area and sat at a terminal.

She gave herself a few moments to collect herself before activating the terminal and accessing her extranet storage account. She was sure she had appeared rude to the quarian, but she was still uncomfortable with these people…She would work on that later, but right now, she had food to eat and a few terabytes of notes to pore over.

OOO

Liara had been sitting quietly in the storage room for a couple of hours, making connections between the notes from other digs and her most recent information. She just finished recording a connection when the door behind her slid open. It was the Commander.

She stood up and faced him, "Commander, are you coming to check up on me?"

"You look much better," he replied, "how are you feeling?"

"Dr. Chakwas assures me that I am going to be fine. I was impressed with her knowledge of asari physiology."

Shepard gave a half smile, "You're in good hands…She knows what she's doing."

"I never properly thanked you for saving me from the geth, Commander. If you hadn't shown up…"

"I'm just glad we got there in time."

Liara gave a small shrug, "So am I…I know you took a chance bringing me aboard this ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me. They do not trust me. But I am _not _like Benezia, I will do whatever I can to help you stop Saren. I promise."

"Shepard smiled, "I trust you Liara, don't worry, I know you won't let me down."

Liara felt some of her stress lift, "It means a lot to hear you say that, Commander. Thank you."

Shepard took a seat on a nearby crate, "Take a seat, Liara. Tell me about yourself."

"Me?" Liara asked as she sat back down in her chair and turned it towards the Commander, "I am afraid I am not very interesting, Commander. I spend most of my time on remote digs, unearthing mundane items buried in long-forgotten Prothean ruins."

Shepard was leaning forward with one arm on his knee, "You must enjoy something about it."

Liara smiled, "I love my work…Seeking out history's lost secrets has a special appeal for me." Her tone became one of awe, "You were actually touched by working Prothean technology. That is why I find you so fascinating, Commander."

Shepard gave a slight smile, "Sounds like you want to dissect me in a lab somewhere."

Liara sat up straight in shock, "What? No! I did not mean to insinuate—Ah, I never meant to offend you, Shepard. I only meant that you would be an interesting specimen for in-depth study. No—that's even worse!"

Shepard laughed and put up a hand, "Calm down, Liara, I was joking."

"Joking?" Liara put a hand to her forehead, "Oh, by the Goddess! How could I be so dense? You must think I am a complete and utter fool…Now you know why I prefer to spend my time in the field with data disks and computers. I always seem to say something embarrassing around other people."

Shepard laughed again, "I don't think you're a fool, Liara…you're still learning about us…And I understand that our humor can be a little…obscure."

"Please—just pretend this conversation never happened."

"As you wish…does that mean that we should start over?"

"No! Um, no…you have a pretty good idea of how I am now."

"That I do," Shepard responded as he stood up, "that I do, I'll talk to you later Liara, I have a few more things I want to take care of before we reach Edolus…let me take your tray."

Liara looked back at the table and saw her empty tray sitting next to the terminal, "Thanks," she handed him the tray, "Goodbye, Shepard."

Liara watched him leave before turning back to her terminal. Her notes could wait…she had another source she wanted to find information on.

OOO

Kaidan was in pain. The medication Chakwas gave him was helping, but only just. He was sitting in the mess at the table, rubbing his temples.

He heard the chair across from him slide out and Shepard ask, "You okay there, Kaidan?"

Kaidan opened his eyes, but didn't focus on anything in particular, "Migraine…It'll pass."

"Here," the commander's omni-tool flashed briefly, the lights dimmed, and the monitor above the table turned off, "That better?"

"Thanks…anything you need, Commander?"

"I can come back later."

Kaidan sat back and folded his hands on the table, "No…this could give me something else to focus on for a while…What do you need?"

"Just trying to get a sense of where the crew's at…Thoughts?"

"Is this an official evaluation, Commander? Or off the record?"

"All right, let's label this officially off the record." Shepard clasped his hands on the table, "Got something on your mind?"

"Straight up? There's something wrong with all this…This Saren is looking for records on some kind of galactic extinction…But we can't get backup from the Council? Sorry, Commander. There's writing on the wall here, but someone isn't reading it."

Shepard shrugged, "The Council doesn't want to believe anything's wrong. I'd call it human nature, but…"

Kaidan gave a single slow nod and winced, "I hear ya. I—It just seems like a group that's been around as long as the Council should see this coming." Kaidan closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath, "Sorry if that sounded too informal there, Commander…Protocol wasn't a big focus back in BAaT."

"I did say it was off the official record." Shepard cocked his head, "What was 'BAaT'?"

"'Biotic Acclimation and Temperance'…it didn't last past the airlock…to the kids they hauled in, it was 'Brain Camp.'" Kaidan quickly shook his head and winced again, "Sorry, 'hauled in' is unkind. We were 'encouraged to commit to an evaluation of our abilities, so an understanding of biotics could be compiled.' There were worse results of 'accidental' exposure to element zero on the womb. Beats the brain tumors some kids grew up with."

"Is there some question about how you were exposed?"

"My mother was downwind of a transport crash…It was before there were human biotics. A little after the discovery of the Martian ruins…It only gets iffy around '63…When Conatix was running out of first-gen subjects. Until then, they'd relied on accidentals. A bunch of guys in suits would show up at your door after school…Next thing you know, you're out on Jump Zero."

"You know of any intentional exposures for certain?"

Kaidan gave a small smile, "No one 'knows.' Doesn't mean they didn't happen. As big as the exposures were, it was hard to track down accidentals…It was different then, no one knew the potential so there wasn't a lot of regulation…Anything Conatix did was gold." Kaidan shrugged, "I'm not saying they intentionally detonated drives over our outposts, but in retrospect, they were damn quick on the scene."

"'Jump Zero' is Gagarin Station, right? What's it like?"

"Yeah, that's the official name. Biggest and farthest facility we had for decades. Right on the termination shock, the outer edge of the solar system. It's where they did all the 'goose chase' FTL research…Before we caught on to using mass effect fields…It was a sterile research platform when I was there."

"You weren't alone out there, were you? There were other kids on the same boat, right?"

"Yeah, we had a little circle that'd get together every night before lights-out…Didn't have much to do, though. It was a research platform, and Conatix kept Jump Zero off the extranet…To prevent leaks."

"You must've had time plenty of time to get to know each other, then."

"Yeah, we'd sit around and bull every night after dinner, then play cards or network games…just pass the time." Kaidan paused in thought, "There was this one girl…named Rahna…she had a little circle grow up around her…She was from Turkey. Her family was very rich, but she was smart, and charming as hell. Beautiful, but not stuck up about it," Kaidan looked up to see the Commander silently watching, interpreting, "I think you'd have liked her, Commander."

"Sounds like she was special to you."

"She was. Maybe she felt the same, but…Things never fell together…Training. You know."

"Gagarin Station is a long way from home…It must've had its moments."

Kaidan gave out another small smile, "'The Grand Gateway to Humanity' looks a lot better in the vids…But that's my own baggage, Commander…No bearing on this."

"Alenko…There's no regulation that says you can't be friends with your commander."

"I appreciate that, Commander. I just don't want you to think that I'm a—a whiner…Besides, I've got my past squared away."

"I _did_ ask you."

"Yeah, well," Kaidan shrugged, "we can continue this later if you want."

"We just might…You have any opinions on the last mission?"

"Dr. T'Soni? Seems like a sweet girl. Easy on the eyes…I mean if you like the bookish sort."

One of Shepard's eyebrows went up, "Any intentions there, Lieutenant?"

"No, Commander…Just art appreciation."

Shepard smiled, "You do realize that this isn't entirely an Alliance ship anymore…right?"

Kaidan shrugged, "She's probably not my type anyway."

"If you say so." Shepard stood up, "Well, Mr. Alenko, I'm going to check our progress in the CIC…Good talk."

"Any time, Commander."

"Go get some more meds from Chakwas…Then take a nap in one of the pods…I believe they can be polarized."

"Will do, Commander," Kaidan closed his eyes, "Just give me a few minutes to get moving."

"It's an order…but…take your time."

OOO

Navigator Pressley was having difficulty focusing on his terminal in the CIC. He was feeling a bit warm and sweaty, and the text on the terminal was small.

He pulled out his omni-tool and quickly changed the size, _There…fixed…hmm…That never bothered me before…_

Pressley heard the distinct footsteps of the Commander stop behind him. He quickly turned around and gave a crisp salute, "If anyone has to take over for Captain Anderson, I'm glad it's you…Not sure about having non-humans on our ship, though."

Shepard returned his salute with a nod, "At ease…We're all on the same team here, Pressley."

"With all due respect, sir, that's what they said about Nihlus…Look how that turned out."

"He died…Speak freely, Pressley. I want to know if you have a problem with the non-humans."

"It's not that, Commander." Pressley leaned back against his terminal, "Humanity has always handled its own problems. Saren attacked one of _our_ colonies. We should be the ones to stop him…We don't need their help."

"This is bigger than humanity; Saren's a threat to every species in the galaxy. I will welcome anyone who wants to help me bring him down."

"I guess so…Maybe I'm stuck in the old ways of thinking. Don't worry, Commander. This won't be a problem."

"How are we doing on reaching the next system?"

Pressley turned back to his console, "This station has been on the fritz since Therum…some of the spatial sensors might've been damaged…It takes a few minutes to switch to secondaries."

"Why didn't you switch sooner?"

"The think tank at Alliance HQ sent us a critical update burst…I didn't have access."

"That doesn't seem very safe…Losing access during updates."

"That's what it fixed. They told me to apply the update when we were in transit.

"Ah, good job then."

Pressley hit a few buttons on his terminal and faced the Commander again, "Switching over. If you want to know right now, Joker should have the numbers."

"I'll go talk to him…Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, sir, just a little tired."

"You don't look very good…You should take a run down to Dr. Chakwas."

"I'll be fine. My shift ends in a few hours. I can hold out until then."

Shepard nodded, "Okay…take a nap or something when you can."

Pressley gave another salute, "Yes, sir," and turned back to his console.

OOO

"I prefer gold to silver. You know, for my medal. I figured you'd recommended me for one since I pulled your, uh, boots out of the fire."

_How does he know it's me? _Shepard thought, then responded, "If we present you with a medal, you'll end up sitting on stage listening to politicians make speeches for a couple hours…fun, fun."

"That's a good point. They'd probably make me shave, too. I spent the last seven weeks working on this baby," Joker ran a hand over his scruffy beard, "No medal's worth that…So wha'd ya need, Commander?"

"Just checking our progress…How much time until we get there?"

Joker accessed the information on his flight terminal, "Getting a little antsy there Commander?"

Shepard shrugged.

"About a half to three-quarters of an hour left."

"Thanks." Shepard bent down a little to see the statistics Joker had access to, "How's the Normandy performing? Is she everything they said she'd be?"

Joker looked up at him, "She's the best ship in the fleet…if you've got a pilot who knows how to handle her." Joker's tone suggested he had been waiting for a question like that for a long time, "The balance isn't what you'd expect…Takes a while to get used to that oversized drive core we got stuffed in the back. Her power can sneak up on you if you're not careful. The Normandy's probably too much for your average alliance pilot, Commander. Lucky for you, I'm anything but average."

_That's one way to feed an ego, _Shepard thought, and then continued, "You certainly don't lack for confidence…Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Joker laughed, "I can see where this is going. You did a background check on me, didn't you?" Joker repositioned himself in his chair, "Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told the captain, 'You want me as your pilot. I'm not good. I'm not great. I'm the best damn helmsman in the Alliance fleet! Top of my class in flight school? I earned that. All those commendations in my file? I earned every single one. Those weren't given to me as charity for my disease.'"

Shepard put up his hands, "I don't doubt it…I didn't even know you were sick."

"You mean—you mean you didn't know? Ah, crap…,"Joker sighed, "Okay…I've got Vrolik's Syndrome. Brittle bone disease. The bones in my legs never developed properly. They're basically hollow. Too much force and they'll shatter…Even with crutches and my leg braces it's hard to get around. One wrong step and CRACK! It's very dramatic, but I've learned to manage my condition, Commander…Put the Normandy in my hands and I'll make her dance for you…Just don't ask me to get up and dance, unless, you know, you like the sound of snapping shin bones."

"Would they snap musically?"

Joker's expression didn't change.

"Sorry, bad joke…What else can you tell me about your Vrolik's Syndrome?"

Joker shook his head, "You would want to know," he looked back up at the Commander, "It's an extremely rare condition. Nobody knows exactly what causes it…Genetic, maybe…It's treatable, but there's no cure…They classify my case as moderate to severe. I was born with over a dozen fractures – hips, thighs, ankles. My bones were already breaking in the womb…A hundred years ago, I wouldn't have survived past my first year…Lucky for me, modern medical science has turned me into a productive member of society."

"You're not going to break a bone trying to fly the ship, are you?" Shepard asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"I don't fly with my feet, Commander…I'm fine so long as I'm in this chair…I gotta' be real careful when I get up to take a piss, though…I can do my job as well as anyone else on the ship…Better, actually. So don't worry about it."

Shepard smiled, "I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, Joker…Let's change subjects."

"If you say so, Commander."

"Where did the name 'Joker' come from, other than a Batman villain?"

"It's a lot shorter than saying Alliance Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau. Plus, I love to make little children laugh."

"I was just thinking about how much you remind me of Santa Clause."

"Wisea**." Joker shrugged, "Look, I didn't pick the name. One of the instructors in flight school used to bug me about never smiling. She started calling me Joker, and it stuck."

"But you always seem so happy," Shepard responded sarcastically.

"Hey, I worked my a** off in flight school, Commander. The world's not going to hand you anything if you go around grinning like an idiot…By the end of the year, I was the best pilot in the Academy…Even better than the instructors, and everybody knew it…they'd all gotten their a**es kicked by the sickly kid with the creaky little legs. One guess who was smiling at graduation."

"Can I have two?" Shepard's omni-tool beeped, Dr. Chakwas sent him a message that Wrex's evaluation was going to take about another hour due to _manageable circumstances_, "I'll guess later…Nice talking with you, Joker, but I have to go…Might as well decide who I'm bringing down with me."

"All right, see ya'," Joker responded as the commander walked away.

OOO

Garrus was finishing up on some final calibrations to the Mako when he heard the elevator door open. He didn't think much of it until the commander asked him if it was ready.

"Just giving this thing some final touches," Garrus responded.

"You figured out the repair system?"

"Kaidan showed me…He's up in the mess now, I believe."

"I already spoke to him…Why is there a torch out?"

Garrus pressed a few buttons on his terminal before turning fully towards the commander and leaning back on the big rover, "We tried fixing it the old fashioned way…Did not end well."

"I guess that explains the migraine. What made you decide to use the system then?"

"Tali telling us how it works, and then Kaidan realizing that was why you sent him down here."

"I hoped he would figure it out."

Garrus glanced back at his terminal, "Looks like the Mako is ready for another drop…I'm coming with you this time."

"You're volunteering?"

Garrus looked back at him, "I have to see what you could possibly be fighting down there to cause that big of a dent."

"Start suiting up in about fifteen to twenty minutes, then. We're going down to check out a distress signal, so be ready for anything."

"Any idea who else you're bringing?"

Shepard brought up his omni-tool, "Kaidan is down for the count, Chakwas has a hold of Wrex and says she doesn't want Liara doing anything big before she's had her full evaluation," Shepard glanced back at Ashley at the weapon's bench, "And it looks like the Chief is still fixing Wrex's rifle…She's still uncomfortable with you guys."

"What better way to prove our values than to have her fight alongside us?"

Shepard looked back at the Chief again, "I would prefer if she had a little more time to get used to the ship."

"So that leaves Tali," Garrus stated matter-of-factly.

Shepard turned to face the turian again, "Looks like it, yes."

"I'll be ready," Garrus finished with a nod.

Shepard returned his nod, "See that you are…I'll go tell Tali."

OOO

Shepard almost ran into the door to engineering when he expected it to open and it didn't.

_Hmm_, he thought, _that's not normal._

A heartbeat later the door snapped open to reveal Engineer Adams fiddling around inside the door's maintenance panel.

"Adams? What're you doing?"

Adams looked up from his work, "Oh, hey, Commander, don't go through this door...It's having…issues. Sorry for being unable to salute."

"It's all right. What's wrong with it?"

"It's drawing too many amps, it's causing the door to open and close erratically. I'm changing out a couple of the resistors and moving a few things around to fix it."

"How long has it been—?"

The door slammed shut.

"Ahh…that's annoying."

The door slid open about a quarter of the way, "It started a little before we pulled apart that beacon, and yes, I put up a barrier just in case it opened while we were working…Why don't you come around to this side."

The Commander gave a quick nod (that he later realized Adams never saw) and came around through the other entrance.

Seeing he was back, Adams started again, "Hey, Commander…You know that quarian? Tali? She's been spending all her time down here asking me about our engines."

"I'll tell her to leave you alone."

Adams looked at the Commander over his shoulder, "What? No! She's amazing! I wish my guys were half as smart as she is. Give her a month on board and she'll know more about our engines than I do. She's got a real knack for technology, that one. I can see why you wanted her to come along."

"I figured she'd be a real asset to the team."

The door snapped open again, "You've got an eye for talent, Commander, but I'm guessing that's not why you came down here."

"I was getting the ground team together…I was going to ask you how the IES stealth system worked, but I can come back later."

Adams looked back into the maintenance panel and smiled, "I'm fine, Commander…You can't hide a ship out in space. They emit too much heat and radiation. Too easy for sensors to pick them up…Unless you find a way to capture those emissions…Our stealth systems trap the energy we give off in storage sinks built into the ship itself. Therefore, there are no external emissions to give away our location. Eventually, though, the sinks have to be vented. More than a few hours silent running and they overheat…Cook us inside our own hull."

"So we're essentially invisible?"

"A visual scan can still pick us up…Anyone looking out a window could see us as plain as day, but you have to be pretty close to actually get a visual in space. Since most vessels rely on scanners, they can't detect us when the system is engaged…Unless we accelerate to FTL speeds."

"FTL gives us away?"

Adams took a jump back as some sparks came out of the maintenance panel and the door slammed shut again, "Yeah, it blue-shifts our emissions and pushes them into frequencies too high to capture in the sinks. It's like setting off a flare when we jump to FTL, sensors can pick us up. Despite that, though, the stealth systems are amazing for short range missions…and we've got the only one."

Shepard pulled up his omni-tool and deactivated the power to the door, "What else can you tell me about this ship?"

After the sparks stopped, Adams approached the panel again, "Thanks, Commander…She's the best ship I've ever served on. Probably the fastest vessel ever designed…She's the only one using the new Tantalus drive core."

Shepard was fiddling with is omni-tool, "I just gave you maintenance authorization…Is there something special about the core?"

"I guess that saves me from having to ask you for authorization…Pass it on to Tali too, she will be useful later on…Proportionally, the core is about twice the size of any other vessel. Not only are we faster, but we can run at FTL speeds longer before we have to discharge it."

"As you wish," Shepard pressed a few more buttons on his omni-tool, "Speaking of which…how long until we have to discharge. I would prefer not to fry.

"Plenty of time, Commander, we'll be at the Citadel long before anything bad happens…We might even get a show."

Shepard glanced over at Tali, then back at Adams, "Thanks for the information, Adams. I'll leave you to your work for now…Carry on."

"Aye, aye, Commander."

OOO

Tali was idly reading up on the specifications of the Normandy when she thought of a question and glanced back at Adams to see he was talking to the Commander, _Later, _she thought.

She had a feeling that she was next on the chat-chain and had a fleeting thought, _I hope he took a shower, because my filter needs replacing and humans carry a lot of germs, _but shook it off and went back to reading.

A few seconds later, she heard Shepard's and Adams' conversation finish and Shepard's footsteps approaching.

Tali immediately turned around and started talking excitedly, "Your ship's amazing, Shepard. I've never seen a drive core like this before. I can't believe you were able to fit it into a ship this small…I'm starting to understand why you humans have been so successful. I had no idea Alliance vessels were so advanced."

Shepard stared at her with a mild look of surprise before responding, "The Normandy's a prototype…Cutting edge technology."

"A month ago, I was patching a makeshift fuel line into a converted tug ship in the Flotilla. Now, I'm sitting aboard one of the most advanced vessels in Citadel space…I have to thank you again for bringing me along. Traveling on a vessel like this is a dream-come-true for me."

Shepard smiled and leaned against the nearby railing, "I figured you'd find ship technology interesting."

"It comes with being a quarian. The Migrant Fleet is the key to survival of my people. Ships are our most valuable resource…But we don't have anything like this. We make due with cast-offs and second-hand equipment…we just try to keep them running for as long as we can. Some of the Fleet's larger vessels date all the way back to our original flight from the geth."

Shepard cocked his head, "You use ships that are three centuries old?"

"They're constantly being repaired, modified, and refitted…They aren't pretty, but they work…mostly…We've tried to make ourselves as independent as possible on the flotilla: grow our own food, mine and process our own fuel, but some things we just can't make on our own. A patch to maintain the hull integrity requires raw materials we just don't have…That's why our Pilgrimages are so important."

"You've only been on your Pilgrimage for a month?"

Tali looked down, "Yes, and it's been an interesting one."

"How so?"

Tali shook off a memory, "I can tell you later, we must be getting close to that planet."

"Ah, yes," Shepard stood up from the railing, "I wanted to talk to you about that…Would you be willing to come along?"

"Yes" she responded perhaps too quickly. Personally, she found she enjoyed working with the Commander, especially after the last mission.

Shepard smiled again, "Good…There was something else I wanted to talk to you about: the Alliance sent in our stipend for hacking the databases. I need a routing number for your account."

Tali put up a three fingered hand, "You don't need to pay me for that, Commander."

"That idea you had showed a major weakness in their security; I would feel bad if you didn't get something," he brought up his omni-tool, "please don't make me hack your account."

Tali sighed and sent him the information.

"There, your stipend is in your account," Shepard paused for a moment before pressing a few more buttons on his omni-tool, "I also gave you my half."

Tali's eyes widened behind her visor and she took a step back in shock, "What? Why would you do that?"

Shepard smiled, "Let me show you something," he accessed his account and showed her his reasoning.

Tali's eyes went wide again, "9,999,999 credits? Where—?"

"Hacking and miscellaneous other things…As you see, I don't need any more credits. My account is maxed out, and while I could open a second account, I have little use of more credits."

"But—"

"Any extra tends to go to charities."

Tali opened her account and saw that her balance had risen by a margin of 20 thousand, "You could have given these to another charity."

Shepard smiled again and put his hand on the railing, "I figured that I've donated over 15 million to different charities, and if that's not enough from one man to at least impact _something_, there will never be enough."

Tali looked back at her account uncertainly.

"For what it's worth," Shepard continued, "I've done the same thing to Adams."

"Randomly giving him the whole stipend?"

"It wasn't random; I planned it from the beginning...in both instances. He helped me, he got paid; you helped me, you got paid…I would do the same to anyone."

Tali closed her omni-tool, "You could've given me a warning."

Shepard smiled, "But this is more fun…I hope I haven't scared you away."

Tali sighed, "Just don't pull something like that again…giving me the whole stipend."

Shepard smiled again, "As you wish…I'll donate the other half to the Migrant Fleet."

"Shepard," Tali responded uncertainly.

Shepard put up his hands, "Fine, fine, I'll find _something_ to do with it…Be ready to go planetside in about twenty minutes."

Tali nodded, "I will…see you later, Commander."

As the commander walked away, she turned back to her console, _He…He's planning something_, she started scrolling through the Normandy's specifications again, but couldn't focus so she closed it, _he definitely has something planned. _She heard the engineering door slam shut again, so she decided to see if Adams needed any help. She also wanted to ask him a few more questions that didn't necessarily pertain to the Normandy.

OOO

"So," Garrus started, trying to make small talk as he and Tali waited outside the Mako for the Commander, "How was Therum?"

Tali didn't turn her head, but didn't respond with even a touch of hostility, "Hot."

Garrus looked at her to try and read her body language, she was projecting an air of excitement, _She's excited to go down to the planet?_

Garrus took a moment to think of how to word his next question and get a better read of his quarian companion, "Do you know anything about the planet?"

Tali continued staring at the door elevator door, "Not at all."

_Three words are better than one, _Garrus thought. _She's excited to be going on a mission with the Commander?_

As realization dawned, he paused again to think about his wording, "What do you think about the commander?"

Tali looked back at him, he made sure that his composure was relaxed and conversational, "I think—"

She was interrupted by the elevator door opening and the Commander stepping out.

Tali's head snapped back to watch his approach and simultaneously answered Garrus' question better than any words would have.

Shepard walked up to them with his helmet under his arm, "What stations do you guys want?"

"I'll man the gun," Garrus stated.

"I'll take the engineering station," Tali quickly followed.

Shepard looked between them, "Neither of you want to drive?"

"Heh," Garrus laughed, "I've been wanting to shoot that gun since I first saw it."

Shepard looked at Tali.

She shrugged, "I'll stick with what I'm good at."

"Alright…All aboard people. Garrus, I assume you already know how to use that thing?"

"I calibrated the damn thing," Garrus responded as he stepped in after the Commander, "I should hope I know how to use it."

OOO

They just touched down and the Commander was already radioing back to Joker, "Keep the Normandy in orbit, watch out for asteroids."

"Understood, Commander," Joker responded.

"So what're the odds of us being hit by one?" Garrus asked.

Shepard set the nav-point into the Mako's map and started moving, "On Earth, I hear the odds are about 1 in 250,000, but here...I think it's safe to assume significantly higher."

In the silica dust sky above them, there was a nearly constant rain of meteors streaking down to the planet. The planet itself was a windy silicate desert with a few jagged peaks jutting out of the ground.

"What's that off in the distance?" Garrus asked.

Shepard stopped the Mako on a dune, "Can't tell from here…Zoom in."

Garrus did as he was told, "Looks like an alliance rover…Grizzly variant…a spinning beacon too."

"That explains the signal…Moving."

As they approached, Shepard began having this uneasy feeling deep in is gut, "Garrus, I have a feeling your question is about to be answered."

Garrus looked at the commander from where he was sitting, "Question? You mean—"

He was interrupted by a large vibration and the screech of a massive creature popping partially out of the ground. It was a wormlike creature with massive organic plate armor disappearing down into the ground, a head of bioluminescent tentacles, and two long deadly claws on the ends of two arm-like appendages.

"Spirits!" Garrus shouted, "Thresher maw!"

Shepard began evasive maneuvers while shouting orders, "Garrus, guess what you have to do! Tali, the shields are not effective against its projectiles. Reroute their power and some of the power from the inertial dampeners to the canon!"

"The inertial dampeners? On it!" Tali responded.

Shepard circled the giant thresher maw and ramped a nearby dune, "Some of the power! For when—"

The maw pulled itself back under ground.

"—it pulls itself back under!" Shepard continued, "We need to know where that thing is going to pop back up!"

A large vibration went through the Mako and Shepard gunned the engine. The maw popped back up right where they were a moment ago and hit the Mako with a shot of its acidic spit.

"Keep moving Shepard!" Garrus shouted, "Stay close enough so it doesn't go down again!"

"I figured that out!" Shepard returned.

"After a few more minutes of attacking and a few more times of the maw retreating underground to pop up somewhere else, the team finally brought the massive creature down.

Garrus sat back in his seat and let out a breath, "Okay Shepard…It looks like dents should be the least of my worries with this thing."

Shepard smiled as he drove the Mako to investigate the other rover, "You learn something every day. Tali, you can reallocate power to where it needs to be. Then launch the repair system while we investigate."

"There aren't more of those things?" Tali asked.

Shepard shook his head, "It's unlikely; thresher maws tend to be solitary creatures, we most likely won't find another for a good long while on this planet."

Shepard brought the Mako to a stop next to a dead body of an Alliance soldier, "Helmets on people," Shepard ordered.

"Good job Tali," Garrus added sarcastically as he climbed out of the gunner's seat, "You got your helmet on before all of us…oh, wait."

"Garrus," Tali started, but quickly shook off a potential response, "just get your helmet on."

Garrus complied and engaged the seals on his helmet, "That's all I get?" Garrus sighed, "Okay, I'm sorry, that was cruel."

Tali grabbed her shotgun off one of the weapon rack, "It's true, though…I _did _have my helmet on before you two."

"Are you two done?" Shepard cut in, "We have some bodies out there that should probably be investigated for the Alliance."

"Sorry, Commander," Garrus quickly responded.

"You two can continue flirting once we're done here."

"Flirting?" Garrus and Tali asked together looking at him. They both noticed the amusement in his dark eyes as he stepped out of the Mako.

Garrus looked back at Tali, "I think he won that conversation.

"I think so," she responded before following the Commander out.

Shepard pulled out his omni-tool and knelt down by the nearest body and started scanning.

"They must've been lured here by the distress beacon too," Tali observed while scanning the nearby spinning beacon.

"Acid burns and multiple lacerations…they never stood a chance," Shepard recorded.

Garrus was hacking his way into the Alliance soldiers' rover, "They must've gotten out to investigate the beacon…then were attacked by the maw."

Shepard stood up and began recording more observations, "Tali, shut that thing down…It's best that we don't let this happen again."

"Shut down," Tali responded.

"Commander, it's open," Garrus informed as the hatch hissed.

"Go inside, find any information you can," Shepard ordered.

After about a minute of silence, Garrus re-emerged holding a datapad, "Looks like these men were under Admiral Kahoku's command. He'd want to know what happened here."

Shepard closed the hatch after Garrus got out, "I'll contact Hackett next time we reach a comm bouy…Anything else in there?"

Garrus shook his head, "No, Commander, only a few spare weapons. Nothing better than what we have."

"Okay," Shepard was silent a moment, "Come on guys, Joker sent us the location of an anomaly he found while scanning."

"Right behind you, Shepard."

OOO

The ride to the nav-point was uneventful and silent. The implications of what they found were weighing down upon all of them. Someone actually lured a squad of soldiers into a thresher maw's nest. For what purpose?

_To study, _the darker portion of Shepard's mind spoke up.

_What could they possibly be studying? _Shepard asked himself.

_Thresher maws._

Shepard shook his head, _Duh…What justification is there for luring those men to their deaths?_

_Science…The galaxy has little information on thresher maws._

_What kind of person would do something like that?_

_Batarians, _the sarcastic side put in.

_SHUT UP! _Shepard shook his head again to clear the sarcastic thought. He tried his best to keep his opinions as un-bias as possible, but this type of thing was certainly something some batarians wouldn't be above doing.

_My statement still stands_, Shepard thought.

No part of Shepard had a response.

Shepard shook his head again.

"You okay over there, Commander?" Garrus asked, looking at him from his seat, "You've shaken your head about three times now."

Shepard didn't take his eyes off of where he was driving, "Just thinking to myself…debating."

"I was starting to wonder. We're almost at the nav-point. It's at the bottom of the hill."

Shepard slowed down the Mako and coasted down the hill to a stop next to the small object, "You guys can stay in here. I can take care of this."

"I'll come with," Tali said, jumping up to follow.

"As you wish," Shepard responded.

Shepard quickly donned his helmet and climbed out of the Mako, followed by Tali.

Both he and Tali knelt down by the object. It was vaguely humanoid in shape and vaguely…salarian.

"It looks like this one died of exposure," Tali observed.

"Captain Milon," Shepard responded, "Salarian according to his tags…I'll do some more research into him on the Normandy…as well as report this to the salarians…"

"Understood," Tali responded, though she seemed confused as to why Shepard was telling her all this.

Noticing this, Shepard continued, "I'm taking mental notes…auditory learner…Calling the Normandy for pickup. Let's get back in the Mako"

* * *

"Commander, nice work out there. I knew working with a Spectre would be better than life at C-Sec," Garrus and Shepard were sitting in the mess.

"I have to admit," Shepard responded, "taking down that maw was fun. Have you worked with Spectres before?"

Garrus took a sip from the dextro concoction he had managed to whip up, "Well, no, but I know what they're like: Spectres make their own rules. You're free to handle things your way. At C-Sec, you're buried by rules. The damn bureaucrats are always on your back."

Shepard was fiddling with his omni-tool, sending a message to Hackett and looking up Captain Milon, "For the most part, the rules are there for a reason."

Garrus shrugged, "Maybe, but sometimes it feels like rules are only there to stop me from doing my work…If I'm trying to take down a suspect, it shouldn't matter how I do it, as long as I do it…But C-Sec wants it done their way. Protocol and procedure come first...That's why I left."

"You left because you didn't like the system?"

Garrus took another sip, "There's more to it than that…It didn't start out bad, but as I rose in the ranks, I got saddled with more and more red tape…C-Sec's handling of Saren was typical. I just couldn't take it anymore. I hate leaving…"

"I hope you made the right choice, then. I'd hate to see you regret it later."

"That's sort of why I teamed up with you…It's a chance for me to get off the Citadel…see how things are done outside C-Sec…Either way, I plan to make the most of this…And without C-Sec headquarters looking over my shoulder, well, maybe I can get the job done my way for a change."

Shepard looked up from his omni-tool, "If 'getting the job done' means endangering innocents, then no. We get the job done right. Not fast…Got it?"

"I wasn't trying to—" Garrus took a breath, "I understand, Commander."

"I think I know what you meant, Garrus, I just wanted to make sure you know: we do what is necessary without getting innocents in the crossfire."

Garrus gave Shepard a turian half-smile, "I know, Commander. I just worded it poorly."

OOO

Shepard had been sitting in the mess for a good hour just researching the body they found on Edolus when Tali came in and sat across from him.

"Hey, Commander," she started.

Shepard looked up from his omni-tool, "Oh, hey Tali. What's up?"

"I was wondering if I could try a few modifications to the Normandy."

Shepard looked back at his omni-tool, "What kind of modifications?"

"I think I found a way to increase our drive core output by a margin of 2.13 percent."

Shepard was silent for a moment, "Go for it…I already gave you maintenance authorization."

Tali cocked her head, "You did?" Tali checked her omni-tool, "Oh…You did…Um…Thanks"

"You don't have to go through me, you know, if you have an idea about improvements."

"I wanted to be sure…plus Adams was crawling around in one of the maintenance shafts."

"Ah," Shepard responded, "he was unavailable. In that case, sure, okay it with me, but even so, you don't really need to ask us unless it's something that could possibly put lives in danger, like doing work on the exterior of the Normandy…I, we, trust you."

Tali was flattered to know how they felt about her, "Thank you, Commander."

Shepard looked up from his omni-tool and smiled, "If your ideas can help improve the Normandy, we will be thanking you," Shepard looked back at his omni-tool, "Feel free to run ideas by us if you're not entirely sure about something."

"I will, Commander," Tali started to stand up.

Shepard powered down his omni-tool, "Before you go, I had an idea I wanted to run by you."

Tali sat down again, "What is it?"

"First off, what parts of engineering are you more focused on?"

Tali thought for a moment, "Mechanical, I think, combat with a little software in there… maybe a touch of electrical."

Shepard perked up, "Oh, good, I think this will work out quite well, then. I'm more focused on software, as you can probably tell, and a bit of electrical. I've had an idea floating around in my head for some sort of robot that can be deployed via omni-tool, but I can't really decide on the most effective geometry for it.

"And you want my help?"

"If you're willing. Don't feel obligate to say 'yes'."

Tali thought for a moment, "I'll see what I can do."

Shepard smiled, "Good, I'll do some research on the limitations of omni-tools and send them your way; as well as some research on the possibilities of processors for the robot."

"There hasn't been any developer suites released commercially for omni-tool applications," Tali pointed out.

Shepard paused as if trying to recall a memory, "Me and a few buddies developed a suite that might work while I was in the N7 program, but it needs tweaking, and a normal omni-tool doesn't have enough processing power to support it." Shepard brought up his omni-tool "my Savant X _could _probably support it, and I have two computers in my quarters," Shepard powered down his omni-tool again, "I think we could make this work."

"We'd be working out of your quarters?"

"Yeah, unless you're opposed to it, I could loan you mine for a while …at least until we get you a better omni-tool."

"You have a Savant X?"

"Took me a while to track this bugger down as an Alliance soldier," Shepard responded gesturing to the omni-tool's controller, "I'll tell the requisitions officer to keep an eye out for another or something at least better for you."

"Uh, thanks, I'm okay with working out of your quarters as needed, though."

"I'll still tell him to keep a lookout. And, for what it's worth, I found out that that body on Edolus, Captain Milon, was one of the hunters that were sent out to look for the League of One…I had to use my Spectre codes a few times to get in."

"That's—"

"Commander," Joker interrupted over the comms, "we're at the Citadel and almost within range to discharge the core. You wanted me to tell you."

"Thanks, Joker." Shepard responded, "Tali, you ever saw a drive discharge at the Citadel?"

Tali shook her head, "I've only been there once before…when you saved me."

Shepard smiled, "Come on then, you're in for a treat."

OOO

Ashley was sitting in the copilot's seat making small talk with Joker, "So your legs can break like glass?"

Joker put a hand to his face and sighed, "Once again, yes, if I don't take my pills."

"Have you been taking your pills?"

"Well—"

"Answer the question, Jeff," Dr. Chakwas ordered from behind him.

Joker closed his eyes, "Doctor…You are the one person who can sneak up on me. You know that?"

"I do, but you're avoiding the question."

Joker replied slowly , "I know…I've kind of sort of been, ah…forgetting."

"Well, Joker it looks like I will be reminding you every morning and night until I'm confident you won't forget."

"Ha," Ashley laughed from her seat.

"Yeah, yeah," Joker responded, "Shepard and Tali are almost here."

As if on cue, the two of them walked up.

"Hey, Skipper," Ashley greeted, "you two here to watch the show too?"

Shepard smiled, "Is there any doubt? Tali here has never seen it at the Citadel."

"This is going to be a good one," Joker responded, "it should start in a few seconds."

OOO

The Normandy was slowly pulling into a small cluster of ships around the Citadel's discharge station. As it got closer, small flashes of electricity started appearing between it and the nearest ship more and more frequently, then in the space of a second, a massive jolt jumped from the Normandy and zigzagged a path through a line of ships all the way to the discharge station. Then it happened again and again before finally creating a solid link that stayed for about half of an hour.

OOO

"Sensors reactivated…Heading in to doc," Joker informed the small group.

Shepard looked at Tali, "What did you think?"

Tali was speechless.

"Was it amazing?" Ashley asked.

"Y—Yes…" Tali finally responded, "It was…Beautiful."

Shepard smiled, "I'm glad you liked it."

"Hey Commander," Joker called back, "You decide who's going to stick with you on the Citadel?"

"Wrex and Kaidan won't be able to," Chakwas informed them.

"Wrex?" Shepard asked.

"We nearly had an incident when I found a projectile round just under the skin's surface…I tried to cut it out…He resisted…Right up to the point where I sedated him. He'll be out for about another hour."

"Ah. That leaves Ash, Tali, Garrus, and Liara."

Ashley coughed expectantly.

Shepard sighed, "You two want to come?"

They both responded in affirmative.

"Then suit up," he looked at the doctor, "Chakwas, send out a message that this is the time to use the bathroom as needed, but at least three people should remain on the ship at all times. Also tell them that they should use the buddy system and should each at least have a pistol with them."

Chakwas pulled up her omni-tool, "Understood Commander, I'm working out the message now."

"That applies to you too."

"I'll go with Joker after Wrex and Kaidan get up."

"Understood." Shepard looked back at Ashley and Tali, "Why are you two waiting here? Let's go get suited up!"

They both responded, "On it Commander," and leapt to catch up with him.

* * *

**If you found anything concerning bathrooms on the SR1…please bring it up and I will fix this chapter.**

**It was implied in the game that they could have made personal logs, Zaeed did it, Pressley did it, why not the rest of the crew. Shepard's is just a bit more extensive…I think. And, for one thing, Ana'Shepard needed to have a way to get his perspective on his missions just in case he died in the end or he was unavailable while she was writing that segment (once again, I will explain the if dead deal later).**

**Odds of being hit by a meteor were found on google.**

**Remember: Imported Shepard…**

**If there's any tech talk that you don't really understand, leave a review and I will edit in an explanation in these footnotes.**

**I'm also technically splitting this chapter into two since I also wanted to include the Citadel segment, but I realized that that would have made it a lot longer than I intended…though it is still currently longer than I intended. It would have also messed up the once a month schedule I have unintentionally set for myself…I've been busy…And I notice I have a lot of unintentional things occurring…I'm not sure how to respond to that…**

**Word of warning: The next one should be another long one...It's on the Citadel and has a lot of dialogue…See you next month…hopefully on or before the 27****th****. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6: Citadel 1: Stocking Up

Chapter 6: Citadel 1: Stocking Up

The squad waited patiently as the Normandy airlock cycled over to the atmosphere of the Citadel.

"Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere," the Normandy VI informed; a heartbeat later, the airlock opened and it continued, "Logged: The commanding officer is ashore. XO Pressley has the deck."

They continued on down the docking tube that connected the Normandy to the main docking platform and were met by an Alliance Officer with Admiral bars.

Ashley straightened and saluted, "Ten-hut!"

"At ease," the Admiral replied, and then saluted, "Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, Fifth Fleet.

Shepard returned his salute, "Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy."

"You don't know who I am, do you Commander?"

Shepard shook his head.

"I command the 63rd Scout Flotilla. You and the Normandy were slated for my unit after shakedown. Then the council got their paws…Claws, Tentacles." The admiral threw up a hand in exasperation, "Whatever. They got them on our ship," the Admiral pointed, "…and you."

"I still serve the Alliance, sir. As a Spectre, I can advance our interests to the Council."

"Hmph. You still know what color your blood is, Shepard?"

Shepard's expression didn't change, "Last I checked it was red, sir."

The admiral stroked his thin white goatee, "They warned me about your…particular humor. I don't begrudge the politicians' decision to throw you to the Council. It's an…opportunity."

The Admiral gestured at the Normandy, "I do begrudge this overdesigned piece of tin, though."

Shepard stood a little straighter, "The Normandy is a fine ship, sir. She's served us well so far."

The admiral threw up a dismissive hand, "It's a gimmick, Commander. Useless in a stand-up fight. This _experiment_ diverted billions from our appropriations bills. For the same price, we could have had a heavy cruiser. But _no, _we had to make nice to the turians. Throw money at a co-developed boondoggle."

The Admiral straightened up, "I'm here to make an inspection, Commander. Normandy is an Alliance warship. I intend to see if she's up to snuff."

"We'd be honored to show her to you, Admiral."

"I'll just bet." the Admiral brushed past the Commander, "Wait here. I won't be long."

Shepard waited for the Normandy Airlock to close before he quickly pulled out his omni-tool and started typing.

"What're you doing, Commander?" Ashley asked.

Shepard pressed a few more buttons, then powered down his omni-tool, "I just sent a message to Chakwas to wake up Kaidan and Wrex, and then sent a message to the rest of the crew on the lower decks to warn them that we had an Alliance Admiral onboard."

"Isn't that a little…devious?" Ashley questioned with an quirked eyebrow.

Shepard looked back at her and shrugged, "Probably."

OOO

"Admiral on deck!" someone shouted before everyone, including Joker, stood at attention.

Rear Admiral Mikhailovich stepped in through the airlock and, since he had probably been informed of Jokers condition, allowed him to sit. The rest of the crew along the corridor had to remain standing, however, and he slowly paced up and down the corridor inspecting each of them in turn before briskly returning to the CIC and turning around.

He muttered, "At ease," and returned to his inspection of the CIC.

OOO

Dr. Chakwas was cleaning up her med-bay after Wrex's little incident when her omni-tool beeped to inform her of multiple messages.

She sighed and brought up her omni-tool.

Chakwas. Wake up Kaidan and Wrex…Now. We have an Alliance Admiral inbound.

-Shepard

Chakwas quickly powered down her omni-tool and dug around until she found the injection to negate the anesthetic she put Wrex down with.

As she applied the injection and narrowly avoided Wrex's hand as it shot out to grab her.

"Don't make me put you under again," she threatened.

Wrex sat up and shook his head, nearly falling back.

"There's an Alliance Admiral on his way…be ready."

Wrex put his legs over the side of the bed and huffed, "I was having a good dream."

A small smile graced Chakwas' lips and she shook her head. At that moment, both the door to the med-bay entrance and the door to the storage area open simultaneously.

The Admiral strode in to see Liara, Wrex, and Chakwas all staring awkwardly. His eyes narrowed and he turned on his heel and walked back out.

All three of them looked at each other before Wrex broke the silence, "You had to wake me up for that?"

Chakwas didn't respond; she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. It lessened a little she looked out of the med-bay window to see Kaidan already up and standing at attention.

"It looks like he is heading to the elevator," Liara observed.

Chakwas opened her second message to see that it was essentially the same warning the Commander gave her, though it was meant for the rest of the crew.

"Let's hope they're ready," she finally responded.

OOO

The Commander and his team were making small talk when the Admiral walked back out. He and Ashley straightened up.

"Commander," the Admial started, "I'm not happy."

Shepard's expression went neutral, "What did you find out of order?"

"Who designed that CIC? Putting the commander aft of everyone else is inefficient. What if he needs to discuss with operators toward the bow?"

"It's a modified turian style," he explained, "they prefer commanders looking over their subordinates, rather than in the middle of them. We wanted to see how effectively they can command with that setup."

"Hmm." The Admiral rubbed his chin, "Reasonable goal, but they should have studied that in a lab rather than on a front-line warship…I had to shake my head at that drive core of yours. 120 billion credits of element zero to make this thing able to move without giving itself away."

He pointed at the commander to emphasize his next statement, "You realize we could make drive cores for 12,000 fighters with that money? What good is it to hide for a few hours anyway? Useless!"

Shepard gave a small smile, "We can loiter in an enemy system and monitor traffic, or drop infiltration teams on enemy worlds. Normandy can be more effective than the salarian STG."

"Maybe, maybe, but that's not the job of a proper warship. We're supposed to find and kill the enemy fleet, not count how many times their garrison goes to the bathroom. And we need to talk about your crew, Commander: Krogan? Asari? Turians? What are you thinking, Commander? You can't allow alien nationals free access to Alliance equipment!"

Shepard glanced back at Tali, then looked back at the Admiral, "Between Saren and the geth, we have enough enemies out here. Treating other species with suspicion and distrust won't win hearts and minds."

"That assumes the hearts and minds are worth winning, Commander." The Admiral countered, "That hasn't been proven yet."

"By my experiences, it has, Admiral," Shepard returned.

"Well, do you have anything else to say, Commander?" the Admiral crossed his arms, "Any other justifications for the state of this vessel?"

Shepard straightened up, "I think the Normandy is a good ship, sir. Even if you disagree, you have to see that her joint construction and multiracial crew make the Alliance look better."

The Admiral was silent for a moment, "Your job is to look good, Commander. The Alliance Navy's is to win wars. I'm not convinced the Normandy isn't a waste of taxpayer money," the Admiral put up a hand, "but I am convinced that you believe otherwise, and you'll use it to the best of its ability. I'll be submitting a report to the Joint Military Council…It will not be as negative as I had planned." The Admiral saluted. "Good hunting, Commander Shepard. Make us proud."

The Commander watched him leave before letting out a breath.

Ashley spoke up, "I noticed he didn't mention Tali."

Shepard half-smiled, "You noticed that too?"

"I wonder why?" Tali speculated.

Shepard shrugged, "Maybe Adams put in a good word. Come on, I've got a few errands to run."

"When I first arrived on the Citadel, I spent nearly three hours being questioned by the officers here before they would let me enter the wards," Tali mentioned as they waited for the elevator to return.

Ashley laughed, "Yeah, I can believe that. C-Sec seems more like a military operation than a police force."

"They're managing the security of the entire station," Shepard pointed out, "though I'll admit three hours is a bit much."

"It might've been well founded," Tali continued, "I did technically sneak in."

Shepard and Ashley both looked at her and replied together, "What?"

Tali started to answer, but was saved a rather uncomfortable explanation by the elevator door opening, so she simply replied, "I had a difficult start to my pilgrimage. I would prefer not to go over it again," and brushed past them.

OOO

Shepard and his team were in the elevator when Ashley tried to start up another conversation, "I've heard some humans are angry at the quarians after the attack on Eden Prime. After all, you created the geth."

"The geth killed billions and forced us from our homeworld." Tali responded, "Most quarians believe we have paid properly for our mistake."

"Hopefully having you with us fighting Saren will change people's minds."

Shepard lips turned up in a small smile, Ashley was actually taking his advice and trying to get along with them.

A moment later, the elevator door opened again and let them off in C-Sec Academy.

"Commander Shepard?" a female voice called.

Shepard looked up to see a woman flanked by a floating camera trying to get his attention.

"Go, go, go, go," he said as he increased his pace and ushered his squad down the stairway to the Citadel Requisitions office.

"Afraid of reporters, Skipper?" Ashley jabbed once they were out of sight.

Shepard looked at her and laughed, "Yeah. It's amazing how easy it is for them to twist words. Plus, we haven't really done anything worth reporting yet."

The requisitions office was a rectangular room that with secure storage lockers along the walls on either side of a desk containing a terminal and a black-skinned turian wearing blue C-Sec body armor sitting behind it. There was also a keeper nearby, of which Shepard discreetly scanned, that was working with a maintenance terminal.

As they approached, the turian glanced up at them, "One sec, looking you up…Hello, Commander."

Shepard gave a small smile, this wasn't the first time he had spoken to this turian over the years, "Got anything interesting?"

"Let me just look you up…whoa," the Requisitions Officer sat back in his chair, "This must be a mistake. System's telling me to offer you our select stock…Spectre?"

Shepard smiled and shrugged, he was enjoying this.

The turian leaned his elbows on the table. "Well…I'd heard about that, but I didn't realize it was you. Sorry, Commander."

Shepard's smile didn't disappear, "Just show me what you've got"

"I'll open the rare stock for you, Commander. Enjoy."

The turian hit a few buttons on his holographic keyboard and a secondary screen came into existence with a full graphical user interphase. Shepard scrolled through and selected a few things before submitting his purchase and sale request.

The turian requisitions officer powered down the purchase terminal, "I will get in contact with your requisitions officer and transfer these things over. You're on the Normandy, right?"

Shepard nodded, "The things I wanted picked up will be waiting in the cargo hold."

"Understood, Commander, we'll take care of it from here."

Shepard gave a single nod, then started walking away.

"All this way just to buy licenses? Skipper?" Ashley asked.

Shepard shrugged, "Our requisitions officer wanted whatever useful licenses I could find so he can be more effective at his job. I bought the Ariake Technologies, Aldrin Labs, and Kassa Fabrication licenses for him."

Ashley shrugged, "I guess that works. Where are we headed?"

Shepard stopped them at the entrance to the requisitions and quickly looked over the room the Academy, and, not seeing the reporter, continued walking toward the transit terminal."

"Flux," he finally responded.

"The nightclub?" Tali asked.

Shepard typed the location into the terminal before facing his team, "Yeah, I figured we could grab a lunch or something since moving out all those supply boxes is going to take a while."

The taxi arrived, "And I just realized I forgot to give that data on Fist to Emily Wong," Shepard continued, "I'm pretty sure she was outside Flux…So we'll talk to her too."

He stepped into the taxi and sat down.

"And after that?" Ashley asked as she took the seat next to him.

Shepard waited for Tali to get in before answering, "Not sure, markets maybe…Kill time"

Shepard's omni-tool beeped as the doors folded closed and he checked it, "Looks like a Nassana Dantius has a job for us… we're going to the embassy's bar after we're done in the markets."

OOO

Liara was surprised that she was actually enjoying the company of the Normandy's resident krogan, Wrex. It was amazing to see how people simply moved out of the way as they walked, almost like an instinct, and how even when heading to the nearest bathroom, Wrex still looked fierce.

The only people who seemed to actually be giving them any interest, though, were the C-Sec officers; they were probably the only reason she and Wrex weren't running.

After a walk that felt like hours, they finally arrived at the bathrooms. Liara found it odd that they wouldn't put any on the landing platforms, but yet again, it was odd for a vessel like the Normandy not to have one as it was.

She shook off the thought and stepped into the female side of the bathrooms. She re-emerged a few minutes later to see that Wrex hadn't yet emerged from his side. So she decided to wait and watch the people of the Citadel go about their business throughout the Academy: The spindly Salarians; the avian Turians; the squatty Volus; the varied Humans; her blue Asari sisters; there were even a few Krogan and Quarians in the mix. They all went about their business without worry or fear of any threats in the traverse.

She even saw a couple of heavily armed humans stepping into a taxi with a quarian. Liara did a double-take when she realized that it was Shepard and his team.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Wrex emerged from the bathroom, "Do you have any ideas of where to go now?"

Wrex thought for a moment, "Flux."

Liara was a little surprised since she half-expected him to say Chora's den.

"I need something other than space food."

"And ryncol?" Liara asked with a touch of humor.

Wrex's eyes lit up and he looked at her, "That actually sounds like a good idea. Let's go."

_Goddess, _was all she could think.

OOO

"Word on the street is that you've been busy. Congratulations on taking down Fist." Tali and Ashley were waiting patiently as the Commander spoke to the young, dark-haired reporter Emily Wong outside of Flux, "I was sure he was a big player in anything going on here. Did you find anything in his office that could help me?"

Shepard pulled out a couple of data disks he compiled on the ride over, "These OSDs might have the information you're looking for."

The reporter's eyes went wide and she started to shake in excitement, "You've got Fist's files? This could be even bigger than I'd hoped!" the reporter took the OSDs and brought up her omni-tool, "Here, Commander. For your trouble."

Shepard powered up his omni-tool to make sure the transfer cleared, "What would my future cooperation be worth? Say an interview when my investigation is over?"

Emily Wong practically jumped in excitement, "Exclusive? You would talk to me before you talk to anyone else? That would be worth quite a bit, and I'd be very happy to compensate you accordingly." She brought up her omni-tool again and made another transfer, "Here you are. Now if you'll excuse me, I should go see what's on these disks," she scurried away already digging through the data.

"That'll be an interesting interview to see," Ashley jibed.

Shepard powered down his omni-tool and turned to face them, "I'm surprised she didn't have a heart attack. Come on ladies," he started walking, "I'll buy."

Tali and Ashley followed the Commander up the stairs and into the Nightclub. Flux was separated into two floors. The top floor held the quasar machines, essentially blackjack played to 20, and the lower floor contained the bar and dance floor.

"If we weren't on duty, I'd have to show you some of my dance moves…sir," Ashley quipped awkwardly over the upbeat music.

Tali couldn't help but feel a slight pang of jealousy against the gunnery chief. She pushed the feeling aside by telling herself that she shouldn't even be having those types of thoughts about her commander; who saved her from Fist…and allowed her onto his ship…and wants to invent something with her…and has a nice-. She shook her head to quash the thoughts again, they were not helping.

She and Ashley sat down on either side of him at the table he picked. She vaguely realized they were sitting close to a wall, and he was facing the entrance.

A holographic menu popped up for each of them, Tali's automatically went to the dextro menu and she started looking through the available meals.

She just happened to glance up at the commander, and saw that he seemed to be listening to something. Realizing this, she did the same.

A volus was speaking, "~Shhhhht~ I'd bring her back in a second, but she doesn't want to come."

A human waitress responded, "I know. I know. I'll see if I can talk some sense into her next time I see her."

"You know how stubborn your sister can be. ~Shhhhht~ The more you push and prod, ~Shhhhht~ the more she'll run away."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Thanks, Doran."

The waitress started walking towards their table but was caught by someone that seemed to know her, "Sorry, I'm kind of busy right now."

She brushed past him and approached the trio at the table, "So, uh, what can I get for you?"

"Have you guys decided?" Shepard asked.

"I'll have the omelet," Ashley started.

Shepard gave her a curious look.

"My clock is still set to Eden Prime."

"I didn't say anything…Tali, you're up."

Tali ordered a dextro paste with a flavor she hadn't had for a while.

"Don't you want something a little more solid?" Ashley asked.

"They're all so—"

"—Tali," the Commander interrupted, "You've seen my account, you know how many credits I have…in fact, I have more. Emily Wong maxed it out again, and I have the excess stored locally. Get whatever you want…don't feel pressured, though."

Tali sighed and ordered a dextro chef's salad, "It's all right, Commander, I just have to get used to this."

Shepard gave a brief smile, then looked up at the waitress, "I haven't had a steak for a while. I'll order one of those…medium rare."

"That'll be 23 credits after you've finished, and I'll bring out a portable sterilizer for your friend. It'll be about 15 minutes."

The waitress turned to leave, but Shepard caught her, "Wait! Before you go…What were you discussing with the volus?"

The waitress glanced over her shoulder, "Who, Doran? I was just asking him about my sister. She worked for Doran before she left to…" She caught herself, "Sorry, I don't want to bore you with my problems."

Shepard gave a comforting smile, "I'm a Spectre, just tell me."

"Really? Well, okay. My sister Jenna left here to go work at Chora's Den. The problem is, she's working as an informant for C-Sec. You know, eavesdropping on the people there. If they find out what she's doing, they'll kill her."

"Being an informant is a dangerous job."

"That's what I've been telling her. I don't know. Sometimes I think she stays there just to spite me."

"Do you know her contact?"

"No, it's all very secret. Last time I asked an officer, he told me to stay out of it—'for Jenna's safety'."

"Maybe I could help her understand just how dangerous Chora's Den is."

The waitress perked up, "Would you? That would be great! Just don't tell her I sent you…Well, I should get back to work before I get in trouble. Thanks."

After the waitress left, Ashley stood up, "15 minutes…I saw some public showers out there, Commander; I'll be back before the food arrives."

"Understood, Chief," Shepard responded, "Be quick."

Tali couldn't help but feel a slight trill in her stomach knowing she was alone with the Commander.

"This music is…interesting," she started, "I wonder if I can find a copy to bring back to the flotilla?"

"I'll see what I can do," the Commander responded.

She looked over at him to see he had already powered up his omni-tool, "Shepard."

Shepard looked up at her, then powered the tool back down, "I'm sorry…it became a habit after the first time I maxed out my account and my team needed something…Especially after Elysium."

"Adams said you were on Elysium," she realized too late that she practically just told Shepard that she was asking about him.

She knew the Commander would likely catch a slip like that, but he thankfully didn't press, and continued, "I was on shore leave there when they hit; We were pretty much caught us with our pants down. Pirates tried hitting us with a surprise attack for some reason or other, and long story short, a couple guns a few hacks, and a call, and we beat them back."

"I heard that it was mostly you holding them off."

Shepard rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, a couple of those guns may have been fairly large, and the rest of the soldiers fairly green."

"And that left a dashing commander to save the day," Tali responded with amusement that lasted right up to the point she realized she said _dashing._

Shepard put his hand back on the table and shrugged, "I wouldn't say _dashing_ or _commander_, but I guess I got the job done…I'm sure I can tell you the full story some other time if you want."

"You may have to," Tali could tell he was trying to avoid a conversation about his past.

Obviously sensing her train of thought, Shepard continued, "People already view me as the savior of Elysium and automatically assume I'm better than the rest…I'm just a soldier doing his job."

"Says the first human Spectre."

Shepard gave her a level stare, "Tali…"

Tali sat back in her chair, "Sorry, Commander."

"I'll tell you the story if you want to hear it, just not now.

"I look forward to it."

Shepard gave a single nod, and then sat back in his chair, "Now that you know a little more about me, why don't you tell me about your people."

Tali decided it was a fair request, "Well…Our lives aren't easy. Resources are scarce and we are constantly on the move. Everything we do must in some way contribute to the continuation of the Migrant Fleet. There are seventeen million quarians in the flotilla, and each of us relies on the others for survival. The bonds among my people are strong. Unfortunately, we have had to surrender many of the freedoms and civil liberties other species take for granted."

Shepard leaned forward on the table, "What kinds of freedoms?"

"It's illegal for parents to have more than one child. If our population grows too much, it would strain our resources to their breaking point. Of course, we also can't allow our numbers to become too few. If our population is in decrline, the rule against single births is temporarily repealed. In extreme cases of population decline, incentives are even offered to encourage multiple births…Though the Conclave hasn't had to take such measures in nearly a century."

"The Conclave is your government?"

"It is our civilian branch of government. Each ship can elect a representative to serve on the Conclave and make decisions that affect the fleet as a whole. On matters that affect an individual ship, however, the captain has final say. Its tradition dates back to the early days when the fleet was governed by martial law. Fortunately, most captains nowadays are smart enough to have an elected council from their crew to give them advice and guidance."

"So the ultimate power rests with the elected officials? You're democratic?"

"In practice. The Conclave and the respective council for each ship tend to set the rules that govern our daily lives. But in theory, we are still under military jurisdiction. The five top-ranking military officials in the fleet serve on the Admiralty Board. These five have the power to overrule any decision by the Conclave in case of emergency. To do so requires unanimous agreement among the Admiralty, and they can only do this once. After that, the entire Board must resign their posts. It's a safeguard that's served us well. In nearly three centuries, the Admiralty Board has only overruled the Conclave four times."

"You wouldn't happen to have any ideas of what those cases were?"

Tali thought for a moment, "I learned about them a long time ago, but I can't seem to remember them."

Shepard sat back in his chair, "Ah, well…Hey look," he gestured towards the entrance, "Kaidan and Garrus are here," he waved his hand in the air.

Tali looked at the entrance and saw the aforementioned duo walking in their direction.

"Hey, Commander, and Tali," Kaidan started, "You guys here for lunch too?"

Shepard smiled, "Is there any doubt? Ash went out for a shower; she says she'll be back before our stuff arrives."

Kaidan shook his head, "Why can't women ever just settle for that shower-in-a-can stuff we have."

"I don't know, maybe it's too practical."

"Hey!" Tali replied indignantly.

Shepard put up his hands, "Sorry, Tali. The way I see it, you're not just a woman, you're an engineer."

Tali's smile was hidden by her visor, and she pointed at the commander, "And you'd better believe it…I use that stuff too."

Kaidan looked at her, "It works on enviro-suits?"

Tali looked back at him, "It's a bio-suit, but quite well actually."

"It _would_ save a lot of time," Shepard thought out loud, "but I imagine it would take a little more than a can to do the whole suit."

Tali looked back at him, "About a can and a half."

"Might have to try it…It would be way faster than doing it by hand."

"For what it's worth," Garrus cut in, "I still have an apartment on the Citadel with a shower. If you're nervous about public showers…It can fit a krogan."

Shepard smiled, "That's a nice offer, Garrus, but we don't need to be running up your water bill."

"I wouldn't be so quick to say that, Commander," Kaidan returned, "it's a nice shower."

Shepard's eyebrows went up, "You used it?"

Kaidan gave Shepard an odd look, "What? He offered."

"I did offer," Garrus confirmed, "and I extended it to you guys…Wrex can use it so long as he doesn't destroy anything…plus I hear that canned shower stuff leaves a residue."

Shepard shrugged, "The Alliance issued stuff does a pretty good job in that department; it doesn't have all the added scents like the public issued stuff."

"Whatever the case, my door is open…for the squad. The rest of the crew…ah…no, there's too many of them."

"Don't worry, they have their own places…Now take a seat, guys, I'll buy you lunch."

As Kaidan and Garrus were taking their seats nearby, Tali happened to look at the entrance to see Liara and Wrex walking in. She pointed them out to the Commander.

"Ah," he responded, then waved them over, "Take a seat guys! I'll buy."

They took another table and had their orders taken by the waitress from before, after she took care of Kaidan and Garrus.

They all made small talk until their food arrived, Ashley actually got back in time, and continued until Wrex finished his second round and third bottle of ryncol.

OOO

"You can keep the Presidium. This is where the action is," Ashley commented to the group as they waited by the entrance for the Commander to pay the bill.

The commander turned around after talking to the waitress and walked up to them.

"Getting her number…uh…sir?"

Shepard smiled, "No, Chief, I just told her that her sister should be pretty safe since Fist is gone for now, and I'm a little pressed for time at the moment. Lunch took a little longer than I planned. I told her that I would take care of the problem next time we're on the Citadel. I also wanted her to charge Chakwas' and Joker's bill to my account…plus the tip."

"You know you're going to be broke by the time Joker's done here," Kaidan joked.

"Yeah," Shepard laughed, "he sits around all day and somehow manages to work up an appetite."

"Hey!" someone called from down the stairs, "Flying's hard! Last I checked, you guys wouldn't be able to get anywhere without me."

Shepard smiled, "Speak of the devils…"

"…and they doth appear," Ashley finished.

"Hey Doc, and Joker."

"Hello, Commander," Dr. Chakwas responded.

"I can't believe you don't think I work!" Joker continued.

"I am sure the Commander respects your abilities with the utmost—," Liara paused as realization dawned, "—you are joking…"

Shepard looked at her over his shoulder, "Hey, you're catching on." He looked back at Joker and Chakwas, "I already have your lunch covered."

"Thanks, Commander. Sorry we're late, _someone,_" Joker nodded towards Chakwas, "insisted we stock up on my medication before we leave."

"And now you're covered for another two months," Chakwas countered.

"Or in scuttlebutt's case," Ashley returned, "six."

"Not any more now that I know."

Joker sighed, then looked at all of the members of the crew and seemed to realize something, "You know…you guys have to be the only people on this station who dress for war when they go to lunch."

The team looked at each other.

"Gotta' be prepared for when the steak starts fighting back," Garrus joked.

"When it does," Shepard added, his tone feigning seriousness, "we'll be ready."

Joker looked at both Shepard and Garrus, "Yeah…Well…I'll do my part." He turned and started walking towards the tables, "See you guys on the Normandy."

Chakwas looked at Shepard and Garrus, "You two make a good team."

Shepard looked at Garrus and shrugged, "Evidently."

Chakwas smiled, then said, "Hopefully I won't see you on the Normandy," and followed Joker to his table.

"Why wouldn't she…?" Liara began to ask, and then realized what the doctor actually meant, "Oh…"

Shepard just smiled.

OOO

As the conversation ended, the team dispersed. Shepard, Tali, and Ashley headed over to the markets; Garrus and Wrex decided to head back to the Normandy; Liara and Kaidan decided to do a bit more exploring.

They were walking up a long, white hallway when Kaidan attempted to start a conversation, "How are you settling in to the Normandy?"

Liara glanced over at him, "I do not know; I have not really spoken to anyone outside of the Shepard and Doctor Chakwas."

Kaidan nodded, "I can understand that. Meeting new people and all."

"This is the most experience I have ever had with working with humans."

They stopped outside a door, and Kaidan pressed the button to summon the elevator, "Are we making a good first impression?"

"Well…Yes," Liara was thinking back to her previous conversation with the Commander, and how patient and attentive he was, "though I am still trying to figure out how you talk."

The elevator door opened and Kaidan looked at her, "You mean like the sarcasm?"

"Yes," she responded as she followed him in and pressed the button to the next floor.

Kaidan smiled, "I swear that that is one of the biggest things that humanity has brought to the galaxy."

Liara thought back to the years before humanity was an active member in the galaxy and realized that his assessment was remarkably true. While sarcasm did exist before they came, it evolved and expanded one-hundred fold after the First Contact war.

"That and medi-gel," Kaidan added, "I don't know how you guys survived for so long before we brought that stuff out."

Liara smiled, "Stitches and grafts…the hard way."

Kaidan looked at her again, "You're figuring it out."

Liara forced herself not to blush.

"Anyway," Kaidan continued as the elevator door opened and he walked out, "I'm sure that some of the crew is still a little wary of you, with your mother and all; just give them a little time."

Liara nodded, and was deciding about whether or not to ask a question that was starting to nag at her.

Kaidan looked at their surroundings. There was a general sitting area and another hallway that disappeared around a sharp corner.

"This isn't the Presidium," Kaidan observed.

Then it occurred to him where they were, "It's a sublevel. The next elevator should be around that corner."

Liara simply nodded and followed him, then decided to voice her question, "What do you think of me?"

Kaidan glanced over at her, "Well, the commander seems to trust you, so do I."

Liara looked back at him, "Do you really?"

Kaidan pressed the button for the elevator, "Honestly, I don't really know much about you, but I'm not going to judge you by judging your mother."

Liara was relieved, "Thank you, Kaidan."

"And, hey, we're going to the Presidium, you can tell me all about yourself there."

Liara laughed, "Only if you tell me about you."

The elevator door opened and Kaidan walked in, "Deal."

OOO

The markets were separated into two floors. The top floor had a few vendors set up on two walls perpendicular to each other and a great view of the Citadel arms through another part of the same massive window that the Commander, Ash, and Kaidan viewed the Citadel before.. There was a stairs stuck to the final wall that lead to the lower markets which had a less-savory reputation of being a location where less-than-legal deals tended to take place.

Tali was listening as Shepard spoke to the volus vendor that had offered her a job before, "~Shhhhht~ Hello, Earth-clan. ~Shhhhht~ No doubt you've just come back from the colonies. Will you be needing supplies?"

Shepard looked down at himself, "Colonies?"

"Oh, my mistake. Earth-clan. I assumed ~Shhhhht~ …it doesn't matter…Feros, ~Shhhhht~ Noveria? ~Shhhhht~ Well, ~Shhhhht~ if you haven't heard of them yet, ~Shhhhht~ I'm sure you will soon. But it doesn't matter where you hail from, ~Shhhhht~ my goods are available to all."

Shepard leaned on the vendor's desk, "Is there anything you can tell me about those places?"

"Feros is an old Prothean world. ~Shhhhht~ Their buildings still litter the surface. ~Shhhhht~ Humans aren't the first to colonize it, but they are the most recent… ~Shhhhht~ Hmm. ~Shhhhht~ I just realized I haven't heard from my contact on that planet for some time. ~Shhhhht~ Ah, well. I'm sure he's fine."

"And Noveria?"

"The corporate capital of the Attican Traverse. ~Shhhhht~ Very cold, ~Shhhhht~ very snowy. I don't get too many clients from there. ~Shhhhht~ They all have their own ~Shhhhht~ private suppliers."

Shepard nodded, "Thanks for the information. What've you got here, then?"

"Ah, take a look. I'm sure you will find something pleasing."

Tali glanced over Shepard's arm as he started applying filters to narrow down the available merchandise to the more relevant articles. After a bit of scrolling, he settled for an Elkoss Combine license, an Armax Arsenal license, and a medi-gel upgrade.

Ashley walked up behind them after haven bought a few items from a nearby vendor, "Hey, Skipper, I just heard that Armax Arsenal is funding the construction some sort of arena simulator somewhere on the Citadel."

Shepard submitted his purchase and turned around, "Really? Where?"

Ashley shrugged, "Not sure. Apparently they haven't decided on a location yet."

Shepard turned around to give the volus merchant the necessary information for shipping, "Maybe we could bring the team there after it's built."

"I can't wait."

Shepard finished his business with the volus and began walking to the stairs that lead to the second level when they a man walk by and give the Commander a double-take. The man had fairly tan skin with extremely blonde hair, and an equally blonde goatee.

"Is that really…wow! It's you!"

Shepard stopped and gave a small smile.

"You're Commander Shepard, hero of Eden Prime! I am so honored to meet you!"

Shepard shook the man's hand, "Nice to meet you. And you are?"

"My name is Conrad. Conrad Verner. They say you killed more than a hundred geth on Eden Prime!"

Shepard smiled a little more, "_They _say a lot of things. I was too busy killing them to count."

"Hey, I know you're probably busy, but do you have time for a quick autograph?"

Shepard took the offered datapad and quickly scrawled his name in cursive before handing it back, "Here you go."

Conrad took the datapad back with even more excitement than the reporter had been, "Thanks. I really appreciate it. My wife is going to be so impressed! I'll let you get back to work, but net time you're on Earth, I'd love to buy you a drink! Thanks again!"

As he left, Shepard looked back at Ashley whose smile spoke louder than anything she could have vocalized.

"Not a word, Chief," Shepard warned before he strode past her and started down the stairs.

Ashley looked over at Tali, gave an amused snort, then followed him down.

Tali just shook her head and followed.

OOO

Unlike the upper markets, the lower markets didn't have the massive view window, but was dominated with larger merchant stalls; there was one against the back of the stairs, one on the perpendicular wall, and a final stall taking up a portion of the center space.

Ashley and Tali were standing by impassively as the Commander made purchases from a dark-skinned salarian merchant named Morlan. He must have been a relatively new merchant since he didn't quite have the lingo figured out.

"Oh, you will be pleased, I think. Very good things I have, you will see," Morlan said before allowing Shepard access to his wares.

Ashley looked over at Tali to see her head slightly elevated as if she were in thought.

"What's on your mind, Tali?" Ashley asked.

Tali didn't respond for a moment, "A few of my people have visited here on their Pilgrimage. But their descriptions of the wards hardly do them justice."

Ashley smiled, "They _are _amazing. This is only the second time I've ever been on this station."

Tali looked back at her, "Me too."

Ashley didn't entirely trust the quarian, she didn't entirely trust any non-human, but Tali seemed like the best person on the Normandy to start with to get over that wariness.

_For the Commander, _she thought.

He wanted her to try, she was going to try her damndest to be the trooper he wanted her to be…for him.

They were saved from an awkward staring contest by the Commander calling back to Tali, "Hey, Tali! There will be some new armor waiting for you on the Normandy."

Tali looked at his back, "Really? What kind?"

"Colossus mark VII."

"Wow, uh, thanks, Commander."

"A word of warning, though: Colossus armor doesn't have the same ventilation system as your current suit, they focused almost all of the suit's power on damage protection."

"Personally," Ashley piped in, "I would rather be hot and alive, rather than cold and, well, dead."

Shepard smiled, "That thought crossed my mind too. I also have a Geth Armory license, an Elanus Risk Control license, and a grenade upgrade coming to the Normandy."

"Geth Armory?" Ashley asked, "They've already studied geth weapons?"

Shepard shrugged and closed down the terminal, "I hope so."

Ashley decided not to dwell on the implications if they hadn't, "Where to now Skipper?"

He turned around and faced her, "Unless you guys have something else you want here," he glanced over at Tali, then back at her, "the embassies."

"Nassanah Dantius?"

Shepard started walking to the nearest rapid transit terminal, "Yup. Come on ladies."

As they approached the terminal, Ashley made an observation, "There's a lot of traffic here. How fast do you think those cars are going?"

Shepard spoke as he typed in his request, "Well, I'm pretty sure that the Citadel allows a maximum speed of about, in human American terms, about 150 miles per hour."

Ashley looked over at Tali to see her nodding, "It might even be more since the system is largely automated."

Shepard turned around, "I'm just guessing since I don't really feel like doing the mathematics right now," Shepard shrugged, "they've raised it like ten times since I first arrived at the Citadel."

Tali nodded again and continued, "As technology improves, it allows them to move faster and faster with more and more safety."

"What about when people choose to actually drive them?" Ashley asked.

Shepard responded, "The sky cars use a VI to track, judge, and compensate for—." Shepard stopped abruptly as he seemed to get an idea.

He looked over at Tali, "Tali, I've got an idea for our little project."

"What?" Tali asked.

Shepard didn't respond immediately as he was making a note of the thought on his omni-tool, "We might be able to use a sky car VI…I wonder if Garrus owns one…I'll send him a message."

Ashley wasn't sure of what to say.

Tali looked over at her as if sensing her confusion, "The Commander and I are going to be working on a small project in our off time."

Ashley looked back at her, and then back at the commander, "Well, good luck."

"Shepard seems to be having a little conversation with Garrus," Tali observed, "but I think he meant to say that the VI actively compensates for any object that appears within its sensor radius."

Shepard powered down his omni-tool and gave a single nod, "Sorry about that Ash, and thanks for explaining that, Tali…We have a sky car."

Ashley smiled and shook her head and thought, _Engineers_, then said, "Speaking of which, ours has arrived."

OOO

Garrus could not believe that he just agreed to allow the Commander free access to his sky car. He wanted to do something with the car's VI even though Garrus warned him that it was a little dated. The Commander didn't care, he said he wanted to use it as a starting point for some project he and Tali were working on. Garrus even agreed to allow it on the Normandy.

Garrus looked over at his Krogan companion who seemed to have no interest in anything that just occurred.

"Hold up, Wrex," Garrus said.

The massive Krogan stopped and turned around; they were just outside the Normandy airlock.

"The Commander wants my sky car…"

Wrex sighed, "So close…let's go."

Garrus' omni-tool beeped and he quickly opened and read the message, "Never mind, you can go, the Commander says the requisitions officer will meet me where my car is stored."

Wrex simply turned around and stepped into the Normandy airlock.

Garrus shook his head re-entered the elevator, he hoped he wasn't going to regret this.

OOO

Shepard and his team just stepped into the embassies when a man with an Indian accent tried to get their attention, "Excuse me, Commander Shepard? Could you spare a moment of your time?"

Shepard couldn't help but smile at how respectful and uncertain the man was. He stopped mid-stride and approached the man.

"Commander Shepard?" the man continued, "My name is Samesh Bhatia. Forgive the intrusion, but I have nowhere else to turn."

Shepard put up a hand, "It's no trouble. What can I do for you?"

"My wife was a marine. She was in the 212 on Eden Prime."

Ashley perked up at the mention of the unit, "Wait. The 212? Your wife was Serviceman Nirali Bhatia? I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. I served in her unit."

Mr. Bhatia looked at her and gave a slight bow, "Chief Williams. It is a pleasure. Nirali spoke of you with great respect."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. Bhatia. Nirali was a good woman. What can we do for you?"

He looked back at the Commander, "I've requested that my wife's body be returned to me for cremation, but the military has refused my request."

"Why?" Shepard asked, "There's got to be a reason."

"I don't know. All I know is that they have declared it impossible for my wife to be returned to me."

Shepard's gaze hardened, "This is…unsettling. We'll look into it."

"The man in charge of my case is Mr. Bosker. When I last saw him, he was in the expensive bar over there," Mr. Bhatia pointed, then gave another slight bow. "I thank you for your time, Commander. I just want to give my wife a proper funeral and the respect she deserves."

As they walked away, Ashley caught the Commander, "Commander?"

"Ash?" he returned without stopping.

"No matter what the Alliance says, we have to have her body returned. She was a good soldier and deserves be with her family."

"I'm sure," Shepard responded.

"Please, Commander."

Shepard stopped and looked at her, "I will do what I can."

They continued into the bar and walked up to the barkeep.

"We're looking for Mr. Bosker," Ashley said.

The balding barkeep pointed them to a young blonde man standing in front of a support pillar fiddling with his onmi-tool.

As they approached, Mr. Bosker powered down his omni-tool and spoke, "My goodness, you're Commander Shepard! Your activities made for quite a briefing in the Diplomatic Corps! Is there something I can do to assist you?"

Just by hearing Mr. Bosker's voice, Shepard knew this was not going to feel good no matter what way it went, "I'm here on behalf of Samesh Bhatia for his wife, Nirali."

Mr. Bosker nodded in remembrance, "Serviceman Nirali Bhatia died on Eden Prime, as Mr. Bhatia no doubt told you. Her wounds are inconsistent with any type of weapon damage we've seen before. That is why her body is being held."

Shepard cocked his head, "You think that her body might be dangerous or contaminated?"

Mr. Bosker gave a brief, uncertain smile, "No, Commander. Nirali Bhatia is not dangerous. Her body is, in fact, extremely valuable to the Alliance. The tests we are conducting may lead to better defenses against geth attacks. Respectfully. Serviceman Bhatia may save more lives in death than she did in life."

Shepard sighed, "I understand what you're trying to do, but holding a body when a close family member formally requests its return is wrong."

"Commander, you of all people should understand how far we must go to protect humanity!" Mr. Bosker pleaded.

"Not if we lose our humanity in the process!" Shepard returned, "I'm out there fighting to stop crap like this!"

Mr. Bosker put up his hands and looked around, "All right, Commander. You win. It was hard enough refusing Mr. Bhatia. I'm not going to risk an incident by refusing you. Tell Samesh that the body is being shipped back to Earth. I'll go now to see to it myself."

As he walked away, Shepard put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, "Mr. Bosker."

Mr. Bosker stopped but didn't turn around.

"As grim as it sounds, there _will_ be more bodies. And their families may be more willing to allow them to keep fighting," Shepard removed his hand, "…and thank you."

"I know, Commander. And I am sorry for not realizing that sooner."

Shepard gave a single nod and Mr. Bosker left.

"Thanks Skipper," Ashley whispered.

Shepard smiled and looked over the other people of the bar to find one last person. An asari, judging by her name, and most likely from a higher social class since she contacted a Spectre. There was only one person in the whole bar that fit, and he approached her.

The asari didn't rise from her seat behind the table, "Commander Shepard. I am Nassana Dantius. I see you got my message."

Shepard's neutral expression didn't change, "It sounded like you needed some help."

"I do. My sister Dahlia is a crewman on a cargo vessel operating out beyond the fringes of the Traverse. Her ship was attacked by privateers. There were no reported survivors."

Shepard could see where this was going, "And you want me to hunt down the people who killed her."

The asari sighed, "This is where it gets complicated. Last week, I received a message with her voice on it. Dahlia is alive! The rest of the crew was killed, but she was taken prisoner. The slavers demanded a huge ransom from me in exchange for returning her unharmed."

"Why didn't the raiders kill her along with everyone else?"

Nassana shrugged, "She probably told them who she was. My family is very wealthy, Shepard. They must have realized she was worth more to them alive."

"So you want me to deliver the ransom?"

"I've already transferred the funds to the account they specified. Only, they never released her. They haven't contacted me since. I've made a terrible mistake, Shepard. I am a diplomatic emissary! By law, I am required to report any attempted extortion to C-Sec immediately. But I was afraid for Dahlia, so I paid the ransom. Now she is still missing, and if anyone finds out what I did, I could end up in jail!"

"So you want me to find her and bring her back."

"You only need to bring her back. I have already found her for you. I tracked the ransom payment through several accounts. Eventually, it lead to a small mercenary band operating out in the Artemis Tau cluster. I need you to go to the merc base, take them out, and bring my sister back. You shall be well rewarded."

"You don't need to worry. I'll bring her back."

"Thank you, Shepard. I knew you were the right man for the job. Come back and see me when the job is done."

As they walked away, Tali gave her opinion, "I don't trust her, Commander."

Shepard smiled and looked back at her, "You don't either?"

"She seemed fake," Ashley mentioned.

Shepard nodded, "There's more to this…She told us what we're going into, so we will take care of this and see what happens."

"So long as you know what you're doing," Tali returned.

Shepard smiled, "Trust me…I'm an Engineer."

"How does that even…"Ashley started, then put her hand to her face, "No, just…just…No. I'm not even going to…no."

Shepard just smiled as he lead the team back to Mr. Bhatia.

OOO

"Hello again, Commander. Has there been any word?"

Shepard straightened up, "I reminded Mr. Bosker what we're all fighting for…Your wife is coming home."

"Thank you. I will return home and begin my preparations; it does not bring me happiness, but it does bring me peace. Goodbye, Commander."

"Samesh?" Ashley started before he walked away, "I don't know if this helps, but your wife… Nirali loved you very much. She missed your cooking, and she played recordings of you every night before she went to sleep."

Mr. Bhatia gave a slight bow, "I know. Miss Williams. But thank you. It's nice to hear it again."

Shepard looked back at Ashley as Mr. Bhatia walked away and smiled, "You're a good person, Ash."

Ashley returned his gaze for a moment, then looked away trying to suppress a blush, "She was a good soldier."

Shepard was silent for a moment longer, "Come on ladies…Let's head back to the N—" Shepard's omni-tool beeped.

He opened it and skimmed the message, "It looks like Hackett found Admiral Kahoku. We can meet him in the Citadel Tower."

OOO

Garrus was flying his creaky old sky car with the Normandy requisitions officer sitting in the passenger seat.

"If you think about it," the young Requisitions Officer started, "since they're both engineers, they might be able to make this thing work better."

Garrus looked over at his goateed companion, "Is there something wrong with it?"

"Well," as if on cue, they heard a clunk and the ride became a little more choppy, "the forward stabilizer is shorting out."

Garrus muttered something under his breath, then looked forward and said, "It's a feature."

The Requisitions Officer gave him a level look, "Uh huh."

"If they break it I might be able to get a new one out of the deal."

"That's one way to think about it."

There was a heavy silence between them until it was broken by both of their omni-tools going off simultaneously. Garrus decided not to check his since it was a safe assumption they were both the same message.

"The Commander is calling everyone in," the Requisitions Officer informed, "I hope we make it."

"You doubt my sky car's capabilities?" Garrus asked with mock hurt.

"Yes."

Garrus shrugged, "Well, so do I."

The Requisitions Officer laughed, "Oh, God. We're doomed."

Garrus looked out his side window, "Yeah, we probably are…Think we should pick up Joker and Chakwas? They're walking right down there."

The Requisitions officer craned his head to see, "Heh, what the hell, let's do it."

Garrus maneuvered the sky car out of traffic and brought it down a few feet away from the aforementioned duo. As they touched down, the top door should have opened upward while the left door opened outward, but neither of them moved.

The Requisitions Officer looked over at Garrus, "Now what?"

Garrus sighed and gave the ceiling a light punch and it sprung open.

"Hey, guys!" Joker said after he walked over, "Having a few car issues there Garrus?"

Garrus shook his head, "Nope, not at all. It was designed to be a piece of junk…Need a lift?"

Joker nodded, then caught himself, "Will this thing fall apart before we reach the Normandy?"

"No idea," Garrus responded, "but I've got insurance if it does."

"That's reassuring," Joker returned sarcastically as he sat down.

"Why are you taking your sky car to the Normandy?" Chakwas asked as she sat down and they lifted off.

"Shepard needs to see the VI," the Requisitions Officer responded.

"That's going to end either really well or really bad," Joker joked.

"Either way it's an improvement," Garrus finished.

OOO

It felt so weird to Tali to be in the Citadel Tower. Very few quarians have ever been in there since their exile, for one thing, and for another it physically felt different due to the gravity being about 1/3 of Earth's gravity. She questioned later as to why she didn't compare it to the Flotilla's gravity.

The Admiral was standing over a public terminal apparently trying to get in contact with a Councilor's assistant.

He must've heard them coming since he faced them immediately as they arrived, "Commander Shepard, Isn't it? My name is Admiral Kahoku. Is there something I can do for you?"

Tali reminded herself that the Admiral had likely been informed that Shepard wanted to talk to him.

"You sent a recon team out into the Artemis Tau cluster?" Shepard asked.

The admiral rubbed his somewhat scruffy white beard, he looked like he hadn't slept in days, "Yes – that's right. They went missing a few days ago. I've been trying to find out what happened to them, but I keep getting the run around from Alliance brass. Do you know something about this, Commander?"

Shepard closed his eyes and nodded, "Unfortunately I do, Admiral, they were killed by a thresher maw."

The Admiral started rubbing his hands uncertainly, "A…a thresher maw? That's not…my men wouldn't just stumble into a thresher nest! Not the entire unit."

"Somebody lured them there with an Alliance distress beacon. They placed it perfectly so they'd land right beside the nest."

The Admiral swung his hand in exasperation, "Damn it! I had a bad feeling about this ever since my team disappeared. An Alliance beacon used as bait, my unit wiped out…and nobody seems to know anything about it!"

Kahoku sighed, seemed to age ten years before their eyes., "Commander, I appreciate what you did. Now I need to do my part. The families of those marines deserve to know why they died."

"Is there anything you need from me?"

"Not right now, Shepard, but I'll let you know as soon as I find something out."

Shepard watched him leave, "And on that note, ladies, now we can head back to the Normandy."

Shepard sent out the callback message and approached the nearest rapid transit terminal.

_It looks like we have our work cut out for us_, Tali thought as the sky car arrived.

* * *

**I have opened a new poll on my profile concerning the chances of a prequel and when if at all.**

**I kinda' forgot what video had the Nassana Dantius launcher so I jury-rigged it into this chapter.**

**It was implied in the Citadel DLC that Tali was able to eat solid foods through her suit filters.**

**If you think Flux didn't charge enough, I'll bump it up; I'm not sure what the transfer rate between the credit and the US dollar is, so if you know any generally accepted transfer rates, pm/review.**

**Shower-in-a-can actually exists, though it goes by a different name that I'm not going to mention due to product placement (lol)…though it does go by that name in The Sims 3.**

**Tell me if you think my POV is bouncing around too much/too little.**

**There may be a few formatting issues here and there, but I'm trying my best to keep a good flow, please bear with me, I'm still learning here.**

**After 5 votes, Pinnacle station is going to occur, though not for a few more chapters…definitely before Virmire.**

**Yes…I like my Engineer… ;)**

**[EDIT 9/1/2013] formatting (stupid thing didn't transfer over) and transfer rate update 1 credit = $3 (US) judging by how much the ME books cost in-game and real life.**


	7. Chapter 7: The Rogue VI

Chapter 7: The Rogue VI

"Where to, Commander?" Joker called back as the Normandy airlock hissed open.

Shepard stopped walking, but didn't respond immediately, "Sol system, Luna. Hackett should have sent you the specific location."

"He did, Commander." Joker confirmed, "Course plotted and docking clamps disengaging…ETA about an hour and a half."

Shepard turned to continue down the corridor to the CIC, and was surprised to see Tali and Ashley still standing and waiting.

"You know you two didn't have to wait," he pointed out.

The two women glanced at each other, then Ashley responded, "We're fine."

Shepard shook his head and started walking, "Come on ladies, let's get our armor off and take a look at Garrus' sky car."

OOO

Garrus was leaning against the Mako watching as Shepard fiddled with his omni-tool and Ashley, Tali, Adams, and Kaidan all stood around taking his sky car in. He somehow managed to maneuver the sky car around the weapon's maintenance area and into the Mako's equivalent area on the other side of the cargo hold, much to Wrex's dismay.

After a few minutes of fiddling, Shepard finally spoke up, "Your sky car has a few issues, Garrus."

"I had no idea," he responded sarcastically.

Adams brought up his omni-tool and did a quick diagnostic, "Good God, Garrus. How was this thing even staying in the air?"

"It's been touch and go ever since I pulled it out of one of the Presidium lakes."

Shepard looked over at him, "What was this thing doing in a lake?"

Garrus shrugged, "Some daredevils didn't plan on the recursive battery failing."

"Wouldn't that make it belong to C-Sec?" Kaidan asked.

"Yeah, the daredevils didn't have enough credits to get it back, and C-Sec didn't want it, so they let me have it for cheap."

Shepard looked back at his omni-tool, "That explains just about all of these; and it looks like the VI is still intact."

"Would you like us to fix it?" Tali asked.

Garrus shrugged, "I don't have anything to pay you with."

"It's all right," Shepard responded, "this gives us something else to do in our down time."

"I can repaint it for you when it's done," Ashley offered.

Garrus looked between all the speakers, then said, "Go for it…anything's an improvement."

"I'll help when I can," Adams offered, "but I have to take care of the Normandy."

Shepard looked at him, "Understood, Adams. Prioritize the Normandy, and help only if you want to…we already have two engineers working on it and…" Shepard glanced back at Kaidan who nodded in response, "a sentinel."

Adams nodded, "Understood, Commander, I should go and run a few diagnostics…I will see you later."

Shepard gave a nod and turned to face Tali, but she wasn't there, "Uh, Tali?"

"Down here, Commander," she responded.

Shepard looked over at the sky car to see her already accessing the engine. He glanced over at Kaidan and shrugged before joining Tali at disassembling the important bits of the sky car.

Garrus turned away at that point to run some of his own diagnostics and calibrations on the Mako.

OOO

"Commander, we're about fifteen minutes from Luna," Joker informed over the ship's comms.

Shepard stood up from pulling out the VI controller and wiped some grease off his hands, "Thanks, Joker, we'll be ready."

Kaidan stood up and wiped his hands, "I guess we should tie this thing down so it doesn't get shot out with the Mako?"

Shepard shrugged, "I think it'll be fine, but we can use the electromagnets in the floor just to be sure."

Tali was just standing up when she was pulled flat to her stomach rather forcefully, "Gaa…Oww."

Shepard's eyes went wide as he realized what the just did and deactivated the electromagnet, "Sorry, Tali, your legs okay?"

Tali stood up and brushed off some stray metal particles, "I'm okay, Commander, just a little strain."

"Well, you're very flexible. That suit contains metal that is affected by magnetism?"

Tali started spraying the grease off her suit with bottle of canned shower that she pulled out of one of her pockets, "Some, yes, I just never had a chance to upgrade…well, until you got me a new suit."

Shepard nodded, Tali probably didn't really want the new suit to get dirty, "Are you feeling up to going down to Luna?"

"Of course, Commander."

"Then suit up," Shepard looked over at Kaidan, "you too Kaidan. We're going against an ambitious training VI, and since I _know_ the Alliance trained you in hacking, probably starting with human algorithms, we need you."

Kaidan was already walking over to his armor locker, "Understood, Commander."

"Now, ladies and gentlemen…this is earth's moon…in all its glory," Shepard spoke back from the driver's seat.

Tali looked past him and through the front window, "Hmm…not much there."

Kadian panned the turret in a circle, taking in the view, "Yup, that's about right…It's the first planet humans landed on."

Shepard brought up an interface that showed what Kaidan was seeing, "Nice view of Earth though."

Kaidan pointed the turret at the massive floating blue orb, "I'll agree with that."

They stared in quietly for a moment before Shepard broke the silence and powered down the interface, "Anyway, we should probably get moving."

With a growl and a lurch, they were underway.

"Commander, where are you going?" Kaidan asked, "The base is in the other direction."

"Joker found some debris this way; I thought it best to check it out to make sure it isn't anything the Alliance should be worried about."

"Understood, Commander."

After a couple minutes of silent driving, the Commander spoke up again, "Guys, I've decided something…"

Kaidan and Tali both looked at him, Kaidan spoke, "Guy and gal…sir."

Shepard shook his head, "You get my point. I've decided that driving on the Moon is boring."

"Figure that all out by yourself?" Kaidan asked.

"Try sitting at the engineering station for a while," Tali spoke up.

Shepard was silent for a moment, "Okay…we'll trade once we investigate the debris."

"Commander I-"

"Hey, look," the Commander interrupted, "there it is."

Kaidan smiled and looked back at Tali, "Looks like you're driving, Tali."

Tali put a hand to her visor as Shepard pulled the Mako to a stop.

OOO

"Commander…It's…Soviet," Kaidan informed from where he was scanning.

Shepard was circling around and recording data on the probe, "Soviet? It's old."

The probe had a spherical head with a large projection that held a single rocket, and two smaller projections, with a possible third, extending from the base of the spherical head.

"Soviet?" Tali asked from where she was kneeling getting samples of the lunar soil.

Shepard looked over at her, "From long before Earth created the Systems Alliance, World War II, I believe, and a little after. It's short for the Soviet Union, or Soviet Russia."

"You were at war with these people?"

Shepard looked back at his omni-tool, "Our ancestors were, but I can tell you more about that later if you wish. Anyway, my readings indicate that this is CCCP Luna 23."

"It's in remarkable condition," Kaidan observed, "despite being, well, crashed."

"That's what a lack of atmosphere does, nothing to age it…sending the coordinates to the Alliance…got everything you need you two?"

After both responding in affirmative, they all boarded the Mako and were on the move again.

OOO

Tali was fascinated by the soil she picked up, it was fairly soft, based on what it felt like through the suit, but also fairly abrasive like ground glass. She held the sample up to her olfactory sensor and waited for the smell to filter through. It was a smell she didn't recognize.

"Gunpowder," Shepard called back, "Why do I smell burnt gunpowder?"

Tali looked up to see Shepard turn and look back at her, "Gunpowder?"

"Ah, yes, haven't smelled gunpowder for a long time. It's what we, uh, humanity used before we upgraded to mass accelerators in guns. But that was before my time. The old guns relied on expanding gases and gave of a similar smell when the gunpowder was burned."

Now that Tali thought about it, she remembered some lessons that she had back on the Flotilla about how ancient quarians used something similar back before they were a space-faring species.

Shepard faced forward again, "Boom-sticks my dad occasionally called them. They had a satisfying boom that didn't sound nearly as mechanical as modern weapons."

"You might want to show that to Liara, Tali," Kaidan called back, "I think she would find that just as interesting as you."

"Plus," Shepard continued, "It's a good conversation starter…like it was for us…and hey…aren't you supposed to be driving?"

Tali was about to respond when she was interrupted by a massive boom that jarred all inside the Mako.

"Well…would you look at that," Shepard responded, sounding completely indifferent, "We've arrived and it looks like the VI has hacked the external defenses…Kaidan, you know what to do, Tali, I recommend putting that sample away and manning…or wo-manning…your station." Shepard coughed and activated the thrusters to jump over another rocket, "Anyway…beginning evasive maneuvers."

OOO

It turned out that the VI's programming was still fairly rudimentary in regard to the external defenses since it didn't adapt to their jumping over the fired rockets. It only took a few minutes to bring down all the rocket towers.

There were three standard human facilities arranged in a circle, equidistant from each other over the flat expanse of the mesa. The entrances themselves hid the rest of the facility underground, and were large, circular, and flat and held the now smoking stubs of the rocket towers;

Shepard pulled the Mako up to the nearest entrance and turned around in his seat, "Okay Kaidan, helmet on and get yourself prepped, you already have some idea of what we're going to see in there. Tali, this is an Alliance training facility, while none of the threats in there should be overly fatal, there is no knowing how much the VI has evolved if it even can. Expect gasses, energy shields, and drones."

"Understood, Commander," Tali responded.

Shepard nodded and stood up to retrieve his things, "Helmets should protect against the nerve gas, and the rest should be taken care of by our tech," Shepard paused as the clamps on his helmet sealed, "Unless it hacks our stuff."

Kaidan depressurized the room and opened the hatch, "Here's hoping that it hasn't evolved that much."

Shepard tapped the side of his helmet show he agreed and stepped out.

Shepard was standing with his team in the facility's entrance corridor waiting for the room to repressureize. Once the cycle was completed, he, and the squad, all pulled out their favored weapons. He had his pistol, while not his most favored, it was the most useful for these closer quarters; Tali had her shotgun, and Kaidan had his assault rifle.

The first room they entered was filled with boxes and a few lockers, which Shepard decided against opening since his HUD showed potential threats in the next room.

Shepard stopped his team outside the door and held his hand over the access panel, "Ready?"

Both Tali and Kaidan gave a slight nod in affirmative and pointed their weapons at the door.

Shepard pressed the button and the door slid open to reveal…nothing…or nothing looking to kill them yet.

He motioned for his team to follow him and crouched behind some nearby crates. His HUD showed targets in the room, and since they weren't already attacking implied that they were machines.

He reached the edge of the box and quickly peeked around the corner to confirm his theory. The remainder of the room was filled with drones, and, unfortunately, they all had their weapons trained on him as they immediately took to the air.

Shepard quickly overloaded the nearest drone and pulled back behind the crate. A group of drones split off and tried to flank them, but Kaidan took them out by throwing a crate in their direction and letting physics do the rest. Tali overloaded another drone on their opposite flank that exploded and took out another batch.

Shepard leaned out of cover and unloaded, so to speak, his pistol on two more drones that appeared from behind some crates.

"I think we got 'em, Commander," Tali informed.

"Not quite," Shepard responded as he ran ahead and took out a final one that hadn't moved since the fighting started, "now we do."

"That was kind of easy," Kaidan observed.

Shepard smiled behind his helmet, "Assault droids tend to be. Nice throw."

"Thanks, Commander. Nice hack Tali."

"It was an overload, but thanks."

Shepard gave a single nod, and then started walking towards an entrance that was partially obscured by crates, "Come on you two, I'm guessing the VI conduits are in the next rooms."

As they were walking, Tali spoke up, "Hey Commander? I have a question."

They walked into the first of two rooms and Shepard shot the first conduit which exploded with a shower of sparks, "Shoot."

"I see what you did there," Kaidan laughed.

"Well," Tali started, "the dirt outside is, um, silvery-white. Why is the dirt outside the glass walls brown?"

Shepard looked out through the walls and sure enough, the dirt walls were brown. Shepard was silent for a moment before answering, "You know…I never noticed that before…that is kind of sad." Shepard took a few steps closer, "Oh, that's concrete. When humanity first started settling on the moon, they had to develop a concrete that could set in space…It's brown. It creates an envelope of air between it and the facility that protects against potential ruptures in the walls. The walls are glass so they can maintain them if any cracks appear."

"Not even I knew that," Kaidan responded.

Shepard looked back at him, "I bet you never noticed it either."

Kaidan nodded, "True."

"Shepard!" Tali interrupted, "My olfactory sensors say that some sort of toxic gas is being filtered."

Shepard sighed, "That thing had to get smart some time…good thing we're wearing helmets. Let's take out those remaining conduits. You two go for that other room, I'll finish up here."

All together there were eight conduits, four in either room. The team met up back at the Mako.

OOO

Shepard looked over at Kaidan, "Kaidan? How's your moonwalk?"

Kaidan looked back at him, "Commander?"

"Turn off your grav-boots."

Kaidan did as bidden, "Um…why Commander."

Shepard turned off his boots and turned towards Tali, "Tali, drive the Mako to the next facility."

Tali looked at both of her teammates, "Um…Okay."

Shepard waited for Tali to board and drive the Mako to one of the other facilities before turning back to Kaidan.

"Commander?" Kaidan asked.

Without warning, Shepard started jumping in the direction of the Mako, "Race you!"

Kaidan had a slight moment of hesitation before quickly following suit.

The race was close, or so Shepard liked to believe, but Kaidan was a biotic…end of story.

"Nice try, Shepard," Kaidan gloated, "I'm a biotic…gravity is kind of my thing."

Shepard reactivated is grav boots and hung his head in mock defeat, "I know, but it was close."

"Ha," Tali said as she stepped out of the Mako, "If you consider twenty feet close."

Shepard shrugged, "Relative to the distance between the Moon and Earth."

Kaidan nodded, "Relative to that, maybe, but relative to normal…not so much."

"Well, now I can say that I raced a biotic on the Moon…How many people can say that?"

Kaidan cocked his head, "More than a few I'd say."

Shepard sighed, "Well, I raced a biotic on the Moon with a quarian watching."

Kaidan nodded, "Yeah, you might be alone on that one."

"Ha! It's something."

Kaidan shook his head in amusement, "Some would say that you may have been trying to impress the _female_ quarian."

Shepard and Tali looked at each other, and Shepard looked back at Kaidan, while Tali looked down at the ground, "Some might, but that implies that I thought I had a chance of winning; if I did…then cool, if not…well, here we are."

"So you planned this all out?"

Shepard shrugged, "In a round-a-bout kind of way."

"Uh huh," Kaidan looked over at Tali, who just looked back at him, "we should probably take care of this next training area."

Shepard activated the switch for the door, "Yes, let's."

OOO

Tali was thankful for her visor, Shepard couldn't see her blush. Kaidan implying that Shepard was trying to impress _her_ sent a shock through her system. For a brief moment, all the hope she had for the mutual feeling quietly burst from her chest. If he hadn't turned away at that precise moment, she might've fallen to her knees.

But, deep down she _knew_ it would never work. He could never love someone whose face he could never see, whose skin he could never touch, whose kiss he could never taste.

Did she love him?

_Yes. _She decided right then and there. For better or worse, she loved him, and she would probably always love him. It wasn't worth her time to deny the feelings that were obviously there.

_Or at least until one of you dies,_ the cynical part of her mind spoke up.

Tali shook her head, nobody can kill Shepard, not the Geth, not the Batarians…nobody.

She sighed to herself, he was better off with someone like Ashley or Liara…they could have his children…and they seem to have a bit of an eye for him too. But if his feelings for either of them were mutual, she couldn't tell.

As a quarian, she grew up on knowing how to read body language, but with Shepard, he was guarded, careful on how he acted. Careful on how he spoke. He seemed to have very little interest in anything beyond friendship…or engineering…or technology.

_Hey, you have a knack for technology! And you're an engineer!_ the hopeful part of her mind spoke up.

Tali smiled sadly to herself, _Not a knack like his._

No, the best she could hope for was a strong friendship…She could be content with that…she hoped.

Tali peeked up over the cover she was hiding behind and overloaded a drone which exploded into a sparking pile of junk. Any hope for something more than that between them was doomed to fail and explode…just like that droid.

Tali felt a hand roughly pull her down as a flurry of projectiles flew over her head.

"You alright there Tali?" Kaidan asked as he released her arm, "you've been looking a little distant since..."

As his voice faded out, Tali realized without a doubt that Kaidan now fully suspected her feelings for Shepard, "Sorry," she quickly responded, "I'm fine."

Kaidan put his hand back on her shoulder and gave a hint of a nod that said, _I won't tell anyone._

Tali's head lowered nearly imperceptibly in thanks.

"If you guys are done staring at each other, you may want to fall back to the corridor, we're being swarmed!" Shepard yelled as he pulled back.

Tali felt a smile grace her lips, not entirely a of happiness, but of peace.

"Coming, Commander," both she and Kaidan responded together.

_It's going to be really hard working with him with these feelings_, the cynical part of her spoke up.

Tali just shook her head.

OOO

After the last drone was destroyed, Shepard pulled off his helmet and put it under his arm, "Are you two okay? You had me worried there."

"We're fine, Commander," Kaidan responded, "Tali just needed a little pep talk."

Shepard looked over at her, "You okay Tali?"

Tali cocked her head, "You doubt your lieutenant's pep talk skills?"

Shepard smiled, "Looks like Tali's all right Alenko, it looks like you must've done something right."

"Just had some thoughts about my pilgrimage," Tali deflected.

"You'll find something, Tali."

"I know, Commander."

"Now," Shepard put his helmet back on, "Let's get these conduits…I already feel my face going numb."

OOO

Shepard walked across the room from the first conduit and fired shots into it until it exploded, "Kaidan, go take care of the other room. Tali, watch the larger room and tell us if any more drones deploy. There's no telling how much control the VI has."

"Understood, Commander," they responded together.

Kaidan was just about to step out the door when a kinetic barrier popped up in front of him and he bounced his head off of it, "Dammit! Stupid VI!"

Shepard laughed, "It's a sad day when a VI gets a sense of humor."

Kaidan glowered at him before pulling out his pistol and firing a few shots into the barrier to overpower its circuitry and continuing with his orders.

Tali checked her omni-tool, "I'm reading kinetic barriers powering up all throughout the complex."

"Understood," Shepard responded before hacking a barrier and destroying another conduit.

OOO

"Two down, one to go," Shepard said as he stepped in and closed the Mako's hatch.

"Commander?" Kaidan spoke, "I just got an interesting message."

Shepard sat in the driver's seat, "About what?"

Kaidan fiddled with his omni-tool a bit more, "It's a message calling biotics to the Hawking Eta cluster."

"You're not planning on ditching us and going? Are you?"

Kaidan looked up at the Commander and smiled, "No, Commander. By the way they worded it; it looks like something the Alliance would want investigated."

Shepard powered up the Mako, "Send the information to Joker and the Alliance next time you…" Shepard's talking faded out as he realized something.

"Why did they reactivate extranet access to this section of the planet if the VI is still running?" Tali asked, voicing Shepard's concern.

Shepard stopped the Mako outside the final entrance and immediately started moving towards the hatch, "They wouldn't have unless I gave them the all clear and they sent a team down…It must've hacked something and remotely activated the extranet from one of the other facilities."

"It's already spread that far out?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard opened the Mako's hatch and stepped out, "Unlikely, it probably has access to local Alliance databases and hacked an Admiral's id and sent the commands to one of the other facilities using the emergency override channels."

"Kinda' like a cry for help," Tali observed.

"Yeah," Shepard agreed, "We should probably stop this thing before it uploads itself to the extranet."

"There's a ton of encryption for it to go though, Commander, we still have time."

Shepard pressed the entrance access button, "I'm surprised it hasn't locked the doors yet."

"It's a VI," Tali responded, "What do you expect?"

The door closed behind Kaidan and it began cycling, "And yet it's smart enough to send out a cry for help."

The door finished cycling and opened to reveal a kinetic barrier which Tali quickly shot so the team could move on.

"They train soldiers in these facilities?" Tali asked.

"Yeah," Kaidan responded as he destroyed a kinetic barrier covering the next door, "they use the whole facility; the teams have to infiltrate and complete an objective. These barriers are part of the obstacles."

"Wouldn't they use training drones then?"

"The training drones are scattered around in there, but these are mostly defense drones."

"What about the barriers in front of the conduits?"

"None of the soldiers are expected to be shooting at them directly, they're only designed to protect against stray shots."

Shepard switched to his sniper rifle, "You guys Ready?"

"No-scoping drones? Commander?" Kaidan asked.

"I'm in the mood for something different. Plus, if you haven't noticed, the drones have been getting progressively more advanced. I'm assuming there's going to be a few rocket drones in there next."

"And the fastest way to take them down is with a sniper rifle?"

Shepard shrugged "Usually." He pressed the button for the door and was greeted by another barrier, "Okay…who wants to destroy it?"

Both Tali and Kaidan shot at the same time.

Immediately as the barrier went down, Shepard calmly walked out the door and behind some cover and took out the first rocket drone he saw.

"See!" he called over to Kaidan who was behind another crate, "Effective!"

"Until they flank!" he shouted back as he threw two drones.

Sure enough, they were getting smarter and actually working together.

"Back to the hallway!" Shepard ordered as he simultaneously moved back and hacked a rocket drone.

The other two rushed to comply. Unfortunately their shields were depleted as they reached the hall. Shepard was the last through the door, and when he arrived, he brought his fist down on the door mechanism, snapping it shut.

"Any damage?"

"Took one in the arm," Tali mentioned, "didn't puncture the suit.

"Two punctures," Kaidan responded, "I think the slugs are embedded on the opposite side of the suit."

Shepard brought up his omni-tool and authorized the use of medi-gel.

Kaidan sighed, "Thanks, Commander. Good thing they can't—."

The door slammed open to reveal a large group of rocket troopers on the other side. Almost on instinct, the team launched everything they had on the group. Overloads, hacks, explosive rounds, everything.

It took about a full minute to destroy all drones in front of the door, and their shields were at critical again.

"There's one more drone out there." Shepard informed as he activated his immunity shield, "I'll take care of it."

Before they could follow, he rushed out, and just as he rounded the corner he was hit square in the chest by two rockets.

Kaidan heard Tali gasp as Shepard stumbled back.

Still mid stumble, Shepard launched an explosive round at the ceiling above the drones, knocking their stabilizers out of whack, and immediately followed up by overloading their circuits. All before falling unceremoniously onto his back.

"Shepard!" Tali called before running up and kneeling next to him.

Shepard sat up and coughed, "Ow…that smells like blood…Damn drones."

Kaidan walked up and offered his hand, "That was a lucky shot."

Shepard took the offered hand and stood up, "Both times. Stupid drones were so close together, they looked like one on the HUD," he winced and grabbed his chest.

Tali stood up and administered more medi-gel. Shepard's chest plate had a few chips missing out of it as well as a lot of charring.

Shepard shook his head as his vision cleared, "Thanks, Tali. Let's finish this thing off."

He slowly walked off with his team in tow.

OOO

They arrived at the first conduit, and Shepard glanced back at both of them to make sure they were ready before finally destroying it.

"Detecting more hostiles in the other conduit room," Kaidan informed.

"Understood," Shepard responded, "take care of those other conduits and we'll deal with them together."

Tali and Kaidan leapt to comply, and within ten seconds, the remaining conduits were sparking masses of wires.

Shepard was glad to see that the barrier for the final room was still up.

Shepard took point crouched in front of the barrier and pulled out his sniper rifle, "Tali, take down the barrier, Kaidan, start lining up."

"Understood," Kaidan responded.

"Ready, Commander?" Tali asked.

"Ready," he confirmed.

As soon as the barrier was down, the team opened fire on the drones, well, Shepard just once, the other two took care of the rest.

"You okay Shepard?" Tali asked as he shakily rose to his feet.

"Sniper rifle was not the best choice at that point in time…too much kick…You guys finish off this room."

Tali and Kaidan complied, and just as the final conduit was destroyed, white noise nearly deafened them through their comms, and their HUDs filled with binary code. Fortunately, everything stopped as the lights on the conduit finally flickered and died.

"That thing must've been trying to hack our suits," Shepard observed, "and it must've had some degree of success…that is…disturbing."

"Ready to go Shepard?" Kaidan asked.

"Not quite yet." Shepard hobbled over to one of the nearby terminals.

"What are you doing?" Tali asked.

"Getting a copy of the VI to send to the Alliance. Hopefully they will be able to avoid this kind of thing in the future."

It took a full minute before the VI was completely uploaded to his omni-tool.

When his tool beeped in completion, Shepard turned around, "Now we can go. Kaidan, call the Normandy; Tali," Shepard winced and put his hand on his chest, "I think you're going to have to drive."

* * *

**Look up Luna 23 on Google…it shows how deep Bioware goes. If this chapter seems too rushed, please say something…it ****_was_**** kind of rushed (I wrote the majority of it in the last week...College, etc) but if you want me to improve it, just say. Hopefully you noticed the potential loop for Cerberus to get a hold of the VI…after he sends it of course.**

**My poll is still open and only has 2 voters.**

**EDIT 9/25/13: Added new separators between segments (hopefully it's fixed this time) **


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